A Charmed Story 8: Chris To The Max
by crazyDFFgang
Summary: Cris is back, disturbing the life of the family. And to make bad things worse, someone is going to really mess up with the time... !COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

(Note: Please have a look on our profile! _update_)

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**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 1 **

It was a nice day, with a nice weather and nice perspectives of future. Michael had got promoted and he wanted to celebrate it. He would invite Angela to a very romantic dinner that he himself would prepare; therefore, he had gone out to buy all the things he needed, and had told Angela that he had to work. Man, he was so happy!!  
On his way back, he passed by the Halliwells' manor and decided to call on them. He had talked to Chris on the phone the previous day, and he had heard a very weird story about demons - as always - and a traitor whitelighter, and the best of all the things... His friend WAS daddy!!!! Chris said that there had been some problems, above all because the birth in the middle of an attack, and he had also said something about aggressive children.  
But they couldn't talk much. Actually, Chris didn't like telling him all those things in front of his family. They knew that he knew, of course, and they never said anything about it. But still Chris felt bad about it somehow, so he preferred talking to him about such things when they were alone. He felt less guilty that way, and Mike understood him.  
But now he was impatient to see his friend's little baby, and to find out which was the 'other surprise' he had mentioned on the phone. So finally, he thought he could just knock on their door and talk for a while. He had no idea of how to get to his apartment at the school, but he hoped he could make his way to the manor for some minutes. After all, he could orb... Only he wished they didn't have any demon at the moment in the house...  
Michael pressed the ring bell, and after some minutes the door opened. He found himself in front of a tall and strong blonde man who stared at him surprised at first, somehow worried then, and finally relieved and even happy to see him.  
"Mickey!!" Wyatt exclaimed with a wide smile on his face, making Michael open his mouth in amazement.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Chris?" Angela said smiling when she opened the door and saw that it was her husband's friend. "Oh, Mike is not here, he said he had to work today... But you can pass and take a coffee or something." She pushed herself aside to let him enter her house.  
The young man smirked and muttered an almost inaudible "Thank you, Angy", as he made his way to the kitchen.  
"Hey... Chris, that's the kitchen. I guess you prefer waiting in the lounge." she warned him, still smiling but rather surprised.  
"Oh, sorry..." the man laughed. "I just got somehow... disorientated," he explained as he turned on his feet and walked in the opposite direction.  
Angela nodded and then shook her head. The baby was probably giving him bad nights, she chuckled. "Your little Hope does not let you sleep, huh?"  
The young man frowned, stopping in the middle of his walk: "My what?" Had he heard well? Hope of what?  
Angela closed the door behind her and went closer, looking at him with curiosity.  
"Your baby, of curse..." she paused, waiting for his reaction, but he just chuckled again: "Oh, sorry I didn't hear you well. Hum... Yeah. It... She... is pretty annoying." He smiled.  
"Annoying?" Angela couldn't believe what he was saying. "It's your child, Chris, are you ok?"  
"Quite well, actually." Answered the young man, resuming his walk towards the lounge, and taking seat. He crossed his legs parsimoniously and stared at the woman, who was pretty confused.  
"How does Bianca feel, Chris? I... I heard that it was hard... She almost had an abortion, said Mike..."  
Chris smirked, bending his body upwards: "She's fine... But she probably won't very soon." His voice was suddenly darker, evil.  
Angela realised that something was wrong. That wasn't Chris. He looked like him, he was almost a clone. But it couldn't be him.  
She wanted to scream, or to run away, but it was too late. The door closed behind her with a strong and noisy thud.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt had made his hopefully-future-father-in-law enter and sit down in the lounge. "You wanna see my brother, I guess," he said smiling broadly.  
Michael opened his eyes wide "That... that depends on... who your brother is. And who you are..." he answered, starting to understand. Or thinking that he was starting to understand. Because his mind was a complete mess at that moment. Wyatt laughed heartily.  
"Because you are... I mean... You cannot be... Ok, of course you can. It's evident you can be... But..." Michael shook his head. "You are not..." He smiled nervously. "Tell me you're not..." He looked to one side, looking for the little child with curly blonde hair who should be playing in the playpen. "Oh... You are." He stared at Wyatt.  
"I am..." Wyatt added playfully.  
"Oh, my God..." For a moment Michael seemed to have lost his calm, but suddenly he started to laugh and talk, excited: "Oh, man, I can't believe it!!! So you are that surprise he mentioned!! Oh man... And I spoilt it... You know, he talked about you sooo much!!! I did really regret that I'd never meet you! Well, probably I would have met you... in the future... I guess. But that's not what I mean... Oh, man!! And I spoilt the surprise, please don't tell Chris..."  
"Tell me what?" Chris appeared through the door, smiling, with two little babies on his arms and a blonde kid walking by his side.  
Wyatt couldn't stop laughing as he saw Michael was jumping on his feet and run towards Chris, to see the baby and his friend, in that order.  
"Oh, she's cute! She's like her daddy!!! I mean, you can compare you two easier this way, you're almost the same age!!"  
Chris laughed and Wyatt was still doing it. "This man won't change..." he said.  
"Do you want to hold her," Chris then asked his friend.  
Michael nodded and the Elder-witch placed little Hope in the arms of her Godfather.  
The man kept staring at her. She was really cute in her little white and pink dress... and so small... so adorable. But then Michael turned to the brothers again: "But how come...? What happened for you to be here? And..." He frowned. "What are you doing in the manor, by the way?" he asked turning to Chris. "I thought you'd be at home, in the school."  
"I am a long story..." Wyatt said.  
"And as for me... Yeah, we were supposed to be at home, but Bianca needs some rest, it was hard..." he looked at Wyatt out of the corner of his eyes, "and mom told me that we could spend some nights here, so that she can take care of her and the baby while I'm working, or just help me. And I can help her with mini-me, and mini-Wyatt, at the same time I'm with Hope."  
"Oh..." Michael nodded. "Good." Then he turned to Wyatt: "What about you, 'Long Story'?  
Wyatt chuckled: "Do you really wanna hear it?"  
"Angy thinks I'm at work... I have time. And curiosity!"  
Chris shrugged and smiled. "Then, take a seat, man... I'll get some coffee and we can talk."  
Little Wyatt let go off Chris right at that moment and went to Mike, holding his trousers: "Mickey... play with me."  
"Oh... that's cute." Michael took the boy in his arms and then looked at adult Wyatt, who was smiling, almost drooling. "I correct myself. That's weird..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe sat in front of her computer. From outside her office she heard people talking and walking and hammering on their computers like she should already have done it... But she wasn't able to write. She was tired and she had a terrible headache. She didn't slept the last night...  
"Phoebe, have you finished..." Elise said when she entered the office, but she stopped immediately when she noticed the state Phoebe was in. "Honey what's wrong?" she asked concerned.  
Phoebe shrugged: "I had a bad night..."  
"A fight with your fiancé?"  
Phoebe smiled widely: "Nooooooo... of course not... No it's my nephew and my... niece. My niece was born two days ago. They stay at the manor with us to recover from the birth... but two little babies... God, they where screaming the whole night... They wanted to drink or they needed a new diaper..." Elise couldn't help chuckling.  
At that moment Cole entered. "Hey princess... have you some time?"  
Phoebe nodded: "Come in honey."  
Cole went over to her and gave her a passionate kiss. She sighed and leant herself against his body, closing her eyes.  
Elise smiled: "Phoebe, you know what? I give you one day off... I have here a credit note for that new hotel near the bay... I think you both should go there, and tomorrow I want an article about that location, ok?"  
Phoebe looked at her disbelieving: "But the column?"  
Elise rose her hand to stop her: "Don't worry about that... Therefore I get that article... and maybe you can do it a little like 'the hotel for lovers' or something..."  
Cole grinned, looking at his love, while Phoebe agreed.  
Elise nodded and left the office, while Cole bend down to Phoebe again to kiss her full of love. "Seems we have a day off," he whispered.  
She sighed happily: "Yeah... And I'm sure that it will not be boring." She pulled him closer and kissed him back.

°°°°°°°°°°

Silas and Leo sat in front of Odin's paper-overloaded desk. The old Elder sighed again. "Leo why didn't you tell us?"  
Leo looked to Silas and then back to Odin: "Because it's his decision... and I don't like the fact that you told him about what Cole said to you... to you, not to Silas." Then he turned to the Elder next to him and add: "Nothing personal." Silas nodded.  
"He's a witch Leo... the Elders need to know that," Odin went on.  
"Why?" Leo asked back. "I know it... and Chris does... and also Phoebe... and he told it to you, what I still don't understand... So why isn't that enough? Why making such a big deal out of it?"  
Silas cleared his throat: "I guess, because of his past... but anyway, I'm on your side... it's his life." Leo nodded.  
Odin sighed again: "He was demon, Leo... the power of a witch in the hands of..."  
"He is human Odin... and now he IS a witch! Period!" Leo said a little angry. "And if he didn't want you to know that... it's just because he didn't trust those things... what he needs is someone who believes in him now... not someone who is against him."  
"He needs a whitelighter," Odin went on.  
"He has me and Chris," Leo snapped back.  
Odin sighed: "Alright..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca felt a little dizzy when she woke up. She had slept about five hours which had been really not enough. And in addition she was still feeling weak and worn out from giving birth to her child, only two days ago. But she couldn't sleep anymore, because she heard her baby-girl crying. And that was something she couldn't stand. She needed to look after her, to calm her down, even if she felt still dizzy and weak. 'Damned mother-instincts,' she thought. Slowly she put her dressing gown on and shimmered into the living room...

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael had little Wyatt on his lab, hugging the cute boy, while the big one caressed baby-Chris. Meanwhile the adult Chris paced around with his crying daughter on his arms, trying to calm her down.  
Hope was there for two days... and she already caused them a lot of trouble, even if she was sooo small and cute... Chris loved her so much, but sometimes he wasn't sure if he could handle that. He had no problems with fighting against demons, but fighting against the cries of his sweet and cute and adorable child seemed a lot harder. Every single scream of Hope hurt him deep down inside, just because he loved her so much. Much more than he thought was possible.  
At that moment Bianca shimmered in.  
"Honey, what are you doing here..." Chris exclaimed, "you should stay in bed... the doctor..."  
Bianca greeted Michael with a nod, and turned to Chris. "The doctor said I shall relax, but I can't do that if my little girl is hungry," she replied. Then she took little Hope, sat down in the old armchair and started to breast-feed the little girl.  
Michael felt a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then he relaxed. After all that was a natural thing...  
Bianca looked really tired, but there was a wide smile on her face while she watched her daughter drinking.  
"So, you called a doctor?" Michael asked confused. At least after all they had told him... With two person who could heal and one who could resurrect... that seemed not necessary to him.  
"Yeah we did," Chris explained, "Hope was born too early, so we just wanted to be sure that everything is alright..."  
Michael nodded. Then he turned to Wyatt: "You know.. you're really a hero... now I know where your brother had got that from..."  
Wyatt just shrugged, and Michael could see the worry in his eyes. He looked from one to the other: "Did I miss something????"  
Chris sighed: "My brother is just a little afraid because of his power... Because there is no one who can resurrect people... at least no one good..."  
Michael turned to Wyatt again: "So you are afraid of being evil???" He frowned, and Wyatt could see that he was hard thinking. Then Michael smiled: "So what have you done? You saved two persons you love and who weren't meant to die that moment... what is evil in this? Nothing... You're good... I know it, even if I just know you for a few minutes... And by the way, who said that there are no good people who can do that... just because there was no one before doesn't mean that there never will be..."  
Wyatt looked at the man surprised, while Chris chuckled. Then Wyatt smiled too: "Yeah, man... please keep your easy look on the magical world, 'cause you're damn right!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige entered the small restaurant near the harbour. She was a little to early, surprisingly.  
"Can I help you ma'am?" the waiter said.  
Paige smiled: "I'm here too meet Mr. Kyle Turner."  
The waiter nodded: "Mr. Turner hadn't arrived yet, but if you like I show you your table."  
Paige nodded and followed the handsome man. He helped her to take her seat and offered her something to drink as long as she had to wait.  
When he was gone Paige looked around. It was really a beautiful place, everything looked warm and friendly. She sat on a table in a corner. It was really a calm place, but still they would be to exposed to talk, here. 'But, well... when we've finished the diner I can orb us to any place,' she thought.  
At that moment Kyle went in and walked directly to their table. "Hey," he said and sat down, "how are you?"  
Paige smiled: "I'm fine... and you?"  
"I think... I guess... I don't know... but, I'm alright," he answered smiling.  
Paige nodded. Then she lowered her eyes: "Ok, listen... if you want to talk about... we're a little too exposed here, I mean... and..."  
The man chuckled: "Shall we order the meal?"

°°°°°°°°°°

"Wow, wow, wow... It seems the little babies of this house have a lot to talk about..." Piper said, as she came downstairs. When she stepped in the lounge she was surprised at first, but then she smiled at Michael: "Good morning, Mike! I didn't expect to find you here..." She gave a quick glance at Wyatt, wondering whether Chris's friend knew who he was already.  
"Oh, good morning, Mrs. Halliwell..."  
"Don't call me like that, Mike, I've told you lots of times! It makes me feel older than I am!"  
The man blushed a little bit. "Sorry..." The two brothers and Bianca laughed at that, and he blushed even more.  
"It's ok..." Piper smiled, patting Michael's shoulder. "It's just funny. Everything's funny in this house!" And both of them turned to look at the rest, big and younger versions of the same people living together under the same roof.  
"Yeah... I was just thinking exactly the same thing." Then he stared at Piper: "You have two versions of your own sons here... And your granddaughter too, and you have seen her five-year-old version lots of times and an older version too, and... Oh, man... How can you deal with this?"  
Piper chuckled as the two brothers smiled, still playing with the kids, and Bianca looked at them out of the corner of her eyes. "You just end up thinking they're different people, it's easier..."  
"Mom and dad will do well in the future..." Wyatt said, gaining a glare of his brother.  
"Future consequences, Wyatt!" he warned.  
Michael chuckled. "Ok... I need to go," he said then, "Angela will worry even if she thinks that I'm at work. She might phone or something. But we should meet some day, all of us. She's looking forward to seeing your little baby there!" He winked at Chris. Then he shook hands with Wyatt and Piper, and said goodbye.  
"Bye, Mike!"  
"Bye Mickey!" the two Wyatts said at the same time.  
Piper and Bianca laughed when they saw the way in which Chris looked at Wyatt. "Don't tell me you call him like that too in the future..." he said with a frown.  
Wyatt opened his mouth, but all of a sudden, his little version, who had been playing with some toys on the floor, said: "Mickey's funny."  
The adult version blushed as Chris looked at him in horror, and the others laughed out loud.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki was in Steve's kitchen, preparing something for lunch. Her eyes were red and she had shadows under them, because of the lack of sleep.  
After the event, she had decided to stay with her boyfriend, until he started to feel better, but even if it had been only two days, she was more and more worried every minute. Steve was behaving like a zombie, and he had terrible nightmares, and didn't sleep at all, but then he kept saying that everything was ok.  
Nicki was tired. She wouldn't be able to get a word out of him. It was clear that he didn't want to worry her more than she had already been, but the fact that he woke her up accidentally, with his cries and screams, didn't help at all.  
Nicki moved from one place to another in the kitchen, working tiredly and thinking about what she could do for Steve, but she didn't know. Finally, she placed the dishes on the table and broke down crying. It was too much... too much.  
Now Steve was quite because she had given him some pills to help him sleep. He had woken up crying several times that night, and finally she had decided to do something about it. But it wasn't of any help.  
The problem was bigger, and a simple pill could not do much. And she regretted that she couldn't take him to a psychologist because she knew which the problem was... and it was magical. She kept crying that way for some minutes... Maybe she should talk to someone else, Veronica for example. Or Tom. Or she would go crazy herself.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Michael got to his house it was quite calm. He looked around, surprised, but Angela seemed to be sleeping or she might have gone out. It was very weird. He stepped into the corridor, it was dark and calm... And the kitchen was open... And there was smoke.  
Smoke!  
Michael rushed to the kitchen afraid that something bad had happened. There was a little fire that he set off as he called Angela, but she wouldn't answer.  
Then he went to the lounge. It was a mess. All the furniture was on the floor and broken, and she wasn't there, but there were some smoking marks on the walls... and a little note on the table. Michael read it nervously, his hand shaking.  
_"I want Christopher Halliwell, and I want him powerless. There's no place for us both in this time and place. There's no place for him in the future, either. Bring the bastard powerless to me, to the park of the Golden Gate, tomorrow at midnight. Don't deceive me. I want him, or you won't see your little tiny wife anymore. An old friend."  
_Michael was like frozen in shock. Then he yelled in desperation: "NOOOO ANGY... NOOOOO...ANGY... CHRIS... OH NOOOOO...!!!!!" He sank down on the sofa and hid his face in his hands, crying.

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe was about to walk into their hotel-room when Cole hold her back. "Not so fast, honey," he said smiling.  
The empath looked at him questioning, but Cole just picked her up to his arms and carried her in to the room, right to the bed. He placed her down and kissed her passionately  
"Hey this isn't our honeymoon," she teased him.  
"Hmmm..." he smiled at her. Then there was suddenly a kind of sparkle in his eyes: "Why not?"  
Phoebe frowned not sure if she got his question right: "Huh?"  
Cole sat down next to her, grasped an advertisement-paper from the table and read.  
_"Welcome to the 'Fantasy Island Hotel' - the place where all your dreams come true..."  
_"Guess the owners watched too much old TV shows," he add smiling, before he went on reading.  
_"If you want to play in the... _bla bla... _Or if you want you can marry at our lovely little chapel..."  
_Phoebe began to laugh: "Oh you're joking... you can't say that serious..." But when she saw Cole's soft smile and his eyes which were looking at her with a kind of determination, she added: "You can't, can you?"  
He smiled even more and took her hand: "Well... We both know that this will happen some day... And we both know what happened on your sister's marriage and on Chris's marriage and ... Well I think I better don't start to talk about our first try..." Phoebe chuckled, thinking about that, and about how much their lives had changed since then. "So... Why shall we wait till something happens and spoils it again?" he asked expectantly.

°°°°°°°°°°

Suddenly Michael heard the sound of someone orbing in - a sound which was already familiar to him. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.  
"Hey, what happened?" Chris said.  
Michael looked up and then shook his head: "Did you... Did you hear my cry? How came, I'm not a witch."  
"I'm an Elder," Chris answered. "We hear everyone... and you yelled like hell broke lose, and so it is looking around here," he said, looking around in the destroyed room, "so what happened?"  
Michael showed his friend the sheet of paper. Chris read it and froze. "Oh my God," he muttered. Then he turned to Michael and hugged him: "I'm so sorry..."  
"I know," his friend answered, "I know... and I know that's not your fault, and I know that you can't..."  
"No Michael," Chris said determined, "we find a way to save her... Come, we go back to the manor, and then we'll see what we can do... I'm sure we'll find a way..."

°°°°°°°°°°

_At the manor... someday, about 23 years in the future...  
_Chris paced through the living room, glancing from time to time at the teen who was with him.  
"Could you please sit down, you're making me nervous!" Jim said.  
"Excuse me that I can't just sit around while our whole future depends on the trust my little twice-blessed brother has in his powers."  
The teen sighed, noticing the worry in the voice of his oldest cousin.  
At that moment purple orbing lights filled the room. When Hope materialised she nearly jumped into her father's arms and kissed him on his cheek. "Oh my God dad... I can't believe how small I had been," she said smiling.  
"So everything is alright?" he asked.  
"She nodded and replied: "As long as you didn't notice anything else, everything is fine I would say." Chris sighed relieved.  
Jim cleared his throat: "I don't want to disturb you, but I have a question: How came that Bianca was alive, even before you send Wyatt back... I mean... I know you did it because he was there when Hope was born but... How did all that started...????"  
Chris frowned, then he understood what his little cousin meant: "I think the first time, when Wyatt had saved me the first time... I decided, if someone would die, I would send him back as soon as he's ready." Jim nodded still confused.  
Hope still smiled and sat down next to him: "You know... you shouldn't worry about those time-travel-stuff..."  
"I know..." Jim said, and then he added, "I wished I could also travel back... I would like to see how my parents met the first time, for example."  
"Believe me, you don't want to see that," Kyle said when he entered the room.  
"Hey dad..."  
Kyle went over to Jim and squeezed his shoulders lightly: "What are you doing here? Don't you have to work for school?"  
Jim rolled his eyes. Then Kyle turned to Chris: "Everything alright?"  
The Elder-witch nodded: "Yeah... everything is still like it should be... no changings."  
"Dad, I have a question," Hope said while she approached her father again. "What would have happened if Wyatt didn't save mom?"  
Chris's eyes turned sad. He had feared that question. He sighed as pictures flashed through his mind, pictures of him killing demon after demon merciless. Those pictures that had started hunting him at the same time, as Wyatt started to hear his call in his dreams. "Except that you would be an only-child? Well... I guess I would have turned evil in order to wipe out every single demon... I would blame them all for losing her."  
Hope frowned, then she smiled: "No... you wouldn't... you're toooooo good to be evil!" She hugged him.  
Chris hugged her back, thinking: 'You have no idea Hope, you have no idea...'

°°°°°°°°°°

_Back in our time...  
_They had a really relaxed lunch together. The meal was just perfect, and Paige and Kyle talked and laughed a lot. They had just a good time. After they had left the restaurant they took a walk along the harbour.  
"I'm sorry," Kyle said suddenly.  
"For what?" Paige asked frowning.  
He shrugged: "For all the trouble I caused... I guess your sisters are quiet angry that you told me your secret."  
Paige smiled: "No... not more than usual... I'm happy that you take that so easy."  
He smiled and shrugged again: "I try..."  
They walked a while in silence until they found a small bench to sit down. "So..." he started again. "How is your life like? I mean... Waking up, searching for the demon of the day, making a potion, vanquish him and then go to bed?"  
Paige laughed heartily: "No... Oh no... we... actually we try to live as normal as possible... Piper runs the club, Phoebe has her column and I have my temp jobs... We're only fighting demons if they come after us first... or if they try to destroy the world in general..."  
Kyle nodded: "So... if you have such a normal life... maybe you'd like to go to cinema or something... someday..." He asked with such a shy voice, that Paige couldn't do anything else than agree. He was just behaving so cute...  
He smiled when she nodded. He couldn't help it... even if he was a little afraid of all that magic stuff, he couldn't help it but he liked her.

°°°°°°°°°°

Half an hour later Phoebe and Cole stood in front of an altar in the small but really beautiful chapel.  
Phoebe still couldn't believe that she was doing that. They had went down to the lobby and talked to the concierge who said he would prepare everything. They had bought a beautiful dress for her and a suit for him and they had bought two beautiful rings made of yellow- and white-gold. Everything was just perfect. Except that no one else was there... none of their family. Phoebe was a little sad about it, and she was sure that Cole at least would like to have Chris on his side... but no... they decided to do it now and that's what they did.  
"Phoebe Halliwell, have you written any vows?" the priest said after a long speech.  
The couple looked at each other. They hadn't thought about that.  
Phoebe shrugged: "Well... not written, but there is something I want to say." Then she turned to Cole: "When I met you the first time, I never thought of how that all would end... And when I lost you, it seemed I lost everything for a long time... Then you just came back, we both got a new chance. And I'm willing to take it, I will not let it pass without doing anything... I love you! I always did... and I always will."  
Cole smiled while the priest asked him for his vows.  
"Well..." he said, "There is nothing I can say... I did so much wrong in my life, I hurt everyone I ever loved... I hurt you... And the fact that you still love me is the greatest gift I've ever got... So there is nothing I can say except... I love you, always and forever... And I hope there will be nothing that spoils our bright future." Phoebe smiled and gave him a kiss on his nose.  
Then the priest went on: "Cole Turner. Will you love, comfort and honor her, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"  
Cole smiled widely: "By my life... I swear I do."  
"Phoebe Halliwell. Will you love, comfort and honor him, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"  
"I do," she answered. And it was a truly honest answer.  
"So Phoebe and Cole, you have just stated your pledge of lifelong commitment to one another before the holy father. Those who god had joined together, let no on divorce. Now give the rings to one another."  
Cole took the ring, placed it on Phoebe's finger and said smiling the most important words in his new life: "With this ring I thee wed."  
Phoebe smiled too and did the same.  
"Well..." the priest said, "from your file I know that you Mr. Turner will take over the name of your wife?"  
Cole nodded while Phoebe looked at him surprised. But before she could ask him the priest went on.  
"So Mr. Halliwell and Mrs Halliwell, from that moment this marriage is valid according to the laws of the state of California. Now you may kiss the bride."  
Cole smiled and did it. He kissed her full of love... his wife.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt was playing with his little self, Bianca had Hope in her arms, and Piper was breast-feeding baby-Chris, when adult-Chris orbed back with Michael. All of them turned their anxious faces to him, and noticed that something was really wrong when they saw the poor man's red eyes. Michael was not of the weak kind, so something really bad had happened, for sure.  
"What is it?" Wyatt asked, really concerned about the man, going closer to him and putting his hand on his shoulder.  
But Chris just led his friend to the sofa. "It's ok, don't press him," he said.  
Bianca kept looking at him, worriedly, and Piper got up to see what she could do: "Are you ok? Do you need something?"  
"I just... Angy..." and he broke down again.  
Wyatt looked at Chris wonderingly. He could see his pale look. It wasn't that much, and the others wouldn't have noticed, but his connection did not deceive him at all. Chris was very worried, not to say very scared. However he said nothing. Chris was trying to show himself grave, and he didn't want to spoil it all, and show his weakness in front of the others.  
"She was kidnapped. We don't know who did it but they want..."  
"They want money, and I don't have it," Michael intervened immediately.  
Chris looked at him and frowned. Why had he lied? But Michael gave a begging look at him too. Wyatt stared at the two men curious.  
"That's so weird..." Piper said.  
"Oh, honey... Maybe we should call the police immediately," Bianca suggested, just picking up the phone.  
"No!" Chris exclaimed. "No, please. Maybe we can do something about it..."  
"What?" Bianca asked. "Shall Paige summon the money?"  
Chris looked at her angry, even if he knew that all this must sound weird to the others.  
Wyatt kept his eyes focused on Michael, while he sensed Chris's confusing emotions. "Alright," he said suddenly and went over to the man, ignoring the questioning looks of his family. He grasped Michael's arm and said: "We have to talk!" Then Wyatt orbed with him away.

* * *

_(Chapter 1 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x) _


	2. Chapter 2

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 2**

Nicki had brought Steve some sandwiches and orange juice. When he had smiled thankful, she had tried to talk to him again... but again it had end up into a fight. She just wanted to help him, but he wouldn't let her.  
Now Steve was alone in his bedroom. Nicki sat in the living room, still crying, when the doorbell rang.  
Slowly she rose, drying her tears and went to the door. When she opened it, Tom looked at her with a shy smile. From his eyes she knew that he knew what was going on.  
"Can I come in?" he asked.  
Nicki nodded. And when she had closed the door behind him, she threw herself to his arms and started to cry again.  
Tom sighed, while he hugged her back in a comforting way. He felt so much sorry for her. He knew, Steve was trying to block him all the time but, having never done that before, he wasn't very good in that and... last night. Last night he got a full impact by one of his friends nightmares. It was terrible. And the knowledge, that his friend had really lived that, scared him to death.  
"It's ok Nicki..." he whispered leading her back to the sofa, "it's ok..."  
"No... it's not," she sobbed. "I don't know what to do... he is just pushing me away, whenever I try to talk to him, whenever I try to help him... I don't know what to do..."  
Tom sighed again. He didn't know what to do either. This was all so... If he just could find out who did that to Steve... he would go and kill him with his own hands, but before he would make him suffer with no end... Steve was the best friend he ever had... and now, to see him suffer like that was just hurting him... "I'll talk to him," he finally said, "even if he don't want to." With this words he stood up and went to his room.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey what do you want from me?" Michael complained when he and Wyatt materialised in the living room of Chris's apartment.  
"You're lying!" Wyatt answered dryly and also a little angry, while the other had sat down.  
Michael looked at the blonde witch with fear. Suddenly all the things Chris had told him about the evil-Wyatt came back to his mind, making him flinch.  
Wyatt rolled his eyes noticing that. "I'm sorry," he said much calmer now, "I just want to know what happened, what really happened... Come on, you can trust me!"  
Michael relaxed a little. But he couldn't tell him. He was afraid that... that they would prefer to save Chris instead of his wife.  
Wyatt knelt down in front of him, the same second his brothers orbing lights filled the room. "Please Mickey..." he begged, "Whatever happened, you can tell me... Be sure... I'm as interested in bringing her back, than you are... maybe even more."  
Michael looked at him frowning, then at Chris who just stood next to them without moving, and then back at Wyatt.  
The blonde witch sighed again: "Ask Chris if you don't believe me."  
Michael looked at Chris again. His friend nodded and walked over to them to sit down, too.  
"He's right... he has a real good reason to care..." Chris said.  
"What reason?" his friend asked confused. Why should he be interested in that...  
"Future consequences," Chris said before his brother could spoil anything.  
So Wyatt just nodded. Then he turned to Chris: "So what's going on here... the truth, please!"  
Chris looked at Michael and then he gave the note to his brother.  
Wyatt read it frowning. Then he looked up again: "And who is that old friend?"  
Chris sighed: "There is only one person who could talk like that and who knows Michael... my evil genetic twin."  
Wyatt looked first at Michael, who had turned pale by Chris's words and then at his brother: "Huh?... What?... I thought you already vanquished him?!?!?!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Leo orbed back home, to the lounge, where Bianca and Piper kept waiting for the young men to come back.  
"Hey, honey! What's going on up there? Or was it just the everyday routine?" Piper asked as Leo walked smiling towards his little baby and lulled him a little bit.  
"Oh... Actually..." What should he do? Was there any point at hiding Cole's real status as a witch anymore? He himself had told Odin... But anyway, perhaps it was better to wait for him to tell them the truth. "Yes!" he smiled. "Nothing interesting in any of the worlds of the world." He tried to sound happy and not worried at all, but Piper and Bianca stared at him unbelievingly, so he added: "Well... And Odin wanted to congratulate me for my granddaughter." He smiled again.  
Bianca smiled looking down at her baby, and Piper grinned. "Oh, I didn't know he was so kind, Leo..." she joked.  
However, she was worried about something and he could sense it, so Leo just raised his eyes serious and stared at her: "What about here? Is everything alright?"  
Piper looked at one side.  
"We are not really sure," Bianca answered. "Michael called Chris, he was so desperate... It seems that his wife has been kidnapped, but..." she started to explain.  
But Piper took the word: "They only want money, or that is what he said. Nothing demonic..."  
"I hope," Bianca concluded, worriedly.  
Leo looked at them confused: "Someone kidnapped Angela? And they only want money? But then why did he call Chris? Why didn't he call the police?"  
"I guess he was so scared he didn't know what to do. He might have thought that magic could help him..." Piper said emotionally, feeling moved by the poor man's situation.  
"Magic can not mess up with normal lives; you know what I mean... That belongs to the police," he said determined.  
"Yeah, but he was devastated..."  
"Anyway, I'm not sure, Leo... I mean, they have not much money. Who would want that from them?" Bianca said looking worried. "I think there's something else. Actually..." She stops to let Piper go on.  
"Yeah..." Piper said. "Wyatt noticed something, he took him somewhere else, and Chris went after them. Their behavior is so weird."  
Leo frowned: "So... You think there's something demonic in this? I knew that. We shouldn't have left Chris tell all the secret to an innocent! We have to fight too much on our own, let alone if innocents know the secret. They just are in the middle. They give advantage to the demons..." Leo was nervous about what was happening. Too many people knew their secret now, there was this Kyle too. Not to mention Victor... who was, after all, an innocent.  
Piper put a hand on his shoulder and felt how tense he was: "It's ok, Leo... That's not the problem now, and we can't do anything about it. Just try to help him now, and protect those who know our secret, ok? And don't worry about those up there, because I know that's your problem now. You're afraid of what they will say..."  
"But, Pi..."  
Piper put a finger on his lips: "I know you, honey. I know that's what is lingering in your mind now." Leo blushed. Yeah, that was the thing.  
Bianca smiled a little bit, but tried to pretend that she was completely focused now on the baby.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Steve!" said a voice outside his bedroom. "Man, you need to open this door, NOW."  
Steve raised his red eyes and shivered a little bit. "I don't wanna open. Just leave me alone!" he said with a trembling voice, as he curled up in his bed, totally wrapped up in his blankets. Tom shook his head outside and knocked strongly on the door: "Steve I don't have all day, man. I'm gonna enter." And he just shimmered in, making Steve flinch a little bit, and glare at him angrily.  
"What do you think you're doing Tom? Are you crazy? What the hell do you try to show man!? Get away from me now, hell, I need to be alone!"  
Tom listened to him devastated at the sight of his friend, but he tried to keep the same tone and determination: "Sorry, buddy, but I'm gonna stay, like it or not." He sat down on the bed by his friend, who crawled away from him.  
"Stevie, do you really think this is gonna help? Being alone all the time? Being compassionate about yourself and regretting whatever happened to you?"  
"You don't have any idea, and you don't have the right to do what you're doing right now, so LEAVE-ME-A-LONE!!!"  
"Of course I will!! I will go with Veronica and have fun with her, and forget about you because what the hell!! I do not really need to worry about you. I do not feel like. Thanks for letting me go off the hook, Steve, that's what I wanted to hear. Thanks! Now I'll leave you here alone, so that you can cry your bad luck and terrible fate forever while I have fun with my friends and forget you and how you feel!" He paused, still sitting on the bed, and waiting for a reaction of Steve's, but he kept curled up and covered with the blanket, trembling uncontrollably.  
Tom shook his head, and tried a closer approach. He put his hand on his friend's back, wishing that he did not reject his touch, which he didn't, so he sighed relieved. "Steve, do you really think I'd be able to do that? Do you really want it?" No answer, but a moan came from the man at his side. "I know that... I know that you wanted us near. You need your friends, and you need Nicki, and she needs you, man, but you are scaring her a lot, and killing her with your silence, and with your moody state of mind. She's as devastated as you... But you can only see your own pain. Not hers, or mine."  
"I just don't want her to know..." he whispered, feeling how his eyes welled up in tears.  
Tom felt really moved by his friend and caressed his back softly, pressing his shoulder. "Well, but she wants to know. And not knowing what was happening to you is killing her little by little."  
"She should leave me alone too. She deserves to enjoy her life and not be haunted by my own nightmares," he sobbed.  
"She would follow you to the end of the world, Steve. You know that... Why don't you make things easier for her... and for you. She needs to hear your voice, see that you still count on her, that you still need her... Share your happiness and also our sadness. She wants to help you. Let her do it," Tom went on with a soft voice. He realised that Steve kept weeping but he had calmed down, so he decided to give him some time.  
After a while, Steve unwrapped himself a little bit and looked into Tom's eyes. He thought he saw some hope in them, but said nothing, just smiled at him.  
"We've been through a lot since we were chosen by the Charmed Ones, huh?" Steve said with a low sad voice. Tom just nodded, thinking about it. "When it happened I felt so... proud, of being one of their chosen ones. But I guess every good has an evil. And being the Charmed Ones' friend means to get into problems, too."  
"We're witches, buddy. We would be in problems anyway," Tom said softly. "But the important thing is we have friends to count on, and to be supported, somehow."  
"I think it is better that you do not know. I don't wanna share this Tom... please," he begged, lowering his wet eyes. "I don't want to hurt you or Nicki more. I just want her to hate me and leave me..."  
Tom shook his head slowly, resigned. "You know what, man? You're too late for that. I'm sharing your secret now. At least a part of it." He saw the surprised and terrified look in Steve's eyes, and his owns started to well up in tears too, but he went on: "And I swear to you that we're gonna find the son of a bitch that did this to you, and we'll kill him. But we're gonna need your help. And Nicki is gonna need you too."  
Steve stared at him, and swallowed. He couldn't believe what Tom had told him, had he read his mind?  
"You said that, Steve, every good has its evil." Tom said with a trembling voice. "It's cool to be able to communicate this way, like we can... But it has its consequences, huh? Especially at night..." Now his own eyes were red.  
Steve was still staring at him, petrified. But suddenly he sat down on the bed and hugged his friend, starting to cry uncontrollably. Tom was surprised at first but then he gave him back the hug, trying to hold his tears back. "Everything's gonna be fine, you'll see that," he whispered.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige and Kyle had spend another hour together, walking along the harbor, talking. They had talked about everything and nothing. They had been laughing and joking.  
Paige felt really comfortable in his company. She couldn't remember when she had felt that relaxed, like she did in this afternoon.  
Now the small car stopped in front of the manor.  
"Thanks for the ride," Paige said with a smile.  
Kyle smiled back shyly: "No problem... even if I guess you would have been faster if you had... well... transported yourself on your own."  
Paige laughed: "That's called orbing, but... it wouldn't have been that nice like it was to spend this time with you." Kyle blushed.  
'Oh he's so cute,' Paige thought. "I really liked that day," she said then.  
"Me too," he answered, but it was more a whisper.  
For a moment they just looked at each other, unsure what to do or to say. Then Paige smiled skyly: "If you wouldn't have to go to work now, I would invite you for a coffee."  
Kyle frowned. Then he looked up to the manor, and then back at Paige: "I don't want to hurt you, but... I'm not sure if I'm ready for that... my last visit was too strange."  
The witch looked at him confused. "Are you afraid of us?" she asked. And then she quickly added to clarify: "I mean... if you are, why did you want to meet me?"  
Kyle chuckled. "First, I'm not afraid of you, your sisters or even your future nephew, or whatever... I'm just not used to it and... I don't think I'm ready for another demon attack like the last time."  
Paige nodded understandingly. Then, when he didn't go on, she asked: "And second?"  
"Second, I wanted to meet you because I... I like you," he confessed, "I just need more time to get used to all that."  
Now Paige was the one who blushed. But she nodded understanding his feelings.  
"So... can I call you tomorrow?" he asked after another moment of weird silence.  
Paige nodded again: "I would be disappointed if you wouldn't."  
Then they said goodbye and Paige left the car... and when he drove away she headed up the stairs.

°°°°°°°°°°

"STOP IT! OK?" Michael yelled suddenly interrupting the brothers arguing.  
Chris and Wyatt looked at him, then at each other.  
"Sorry," the older one said then, looking at his sibling.  
Chris nodded: "Never mind."  
"So what do we do about that problem?" Wyatt asked after a moment of silence.  
Chris shrugged: "I thought about binding my powers temporary... Like for an hour or so... Just as long that he believes it."  
"No," Michael said, "that's too dangerous, you..."  
"I can't just sit around here, when your wife is in danger because of me."  
Wyatt nodded: "Yeah, we have to do something... we need to save her, Mickey... and I promise we will..." Chris nodded.  
Michael shook his head. He couldn't bear the thought of seeing his friend risking his life again for him... not again. But he also wanted his wife back... safe. He just wished he would have another idea...  
"Ok," the blonde witch said turning to Chris again, "we have some time till the deadline... So you orb back to the manor with him, and tell them... maybe they have an idea we couldn't come up with yet."  
Chris looked at Michael who sighed, then he nodded.  
"Good, and I orb down to the underworld... Let's see if I can find out something."  
"Will you go to meet Julian again?" Chris asked.  
Wyatt shrugged: "Maybe..."  
"If you do... tell him if they can find her I'll..."  
Wyatt stopped him with a move of his hand: "I know..."  
Michael had just looked at them, not really understanding what was going on. And he also didn't understand why this Wyatt from the future was so interested in his wife's safety. But whatever reasons he may had, he was happy to have him on their side.  
"Ok," Chris said, "be careful." Then he orbed with Michael away.

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe and Cole lied in the bed in their beautiful hotel room. They embraced each other as close as if they wanted to melt together.  
The empath had closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his body, his warmth, his smell... "I love you," she whispered.  
"I love you, too."  
She smiled when he said that. Then she opened her eyes to look into his. "Do you think..." she paused not sure how to say it.  
"Think what?" Cole asked.  
Phoebe sighed: "The girl I saw in Chris's memories... After all the changings... Do you think that we will..."  
He chuckled. He had never told his wife what Wyatt had told him about a year ago. So he pulled her a little more closer and whispered to her ear: "If you ask me, there is no doubt about it... Actually, I don't see a reason why there should be only one..."  
Now Phoebe was the one who chuckled: "Well... then we should start right now... because I'm not getting younger."  
Cole laughed heartily. Then he kissed her. "Actually," he whispered, "at the moment there are enough kids at home. Don't you think?"  
She sighed: "Yeah that's true... I guess one more and we will get no sleep anymore... not a single second."  
Cole smiled: "Yeah...that's definitely true."  
For a moment they just looked deeply in each other eyes, full of trust, full of love.  
Then Cole smiled again: "But... what do you think... when the kids are about six or seven and go to school already..."  
Phoebe smiled: "I agree. Let's wait till they are going to school... but not a day longer..." Then she kissed him intimately while her hand began another exploration-trip on his body.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Mickey!!!" exclaimed little Wyatt, startling the others who were all submerged in their own thoughts. As the child jumped on Michael's arms, the rest raised their eyes to look at the two men that were now standing in the very same place that, seconds before, had been illumined by orbing lights.  
Michael smiled weakly at the boy and took him in his arms, although he was completely pale. So much that the Halliwells were about to ask him if he needed something, but then he just sat down, and all the attention focused on a worried Chris.  
Above all after Leo saw him and ran to him. "Ok, what is going on here?" He asked.  
"Angy has been kidnapped," his son answered shortly.  
"Where the hell is Wyatt?" Piper asked, starting to freak out with all that weird situation. If it was not demonic... why were they all behaving that way? She began to feel that Bianca and Leo were right.  
"He's ok, mom, he went to..." Chris looked at Michael out of the corner of his eyes, then he sat down and sighed heavily.  
Michael lowered his eyes, not paying much attention to little Wyatt, who insisted on playing all the time.  
"Where...?" Bianca asked softly, standing up to go and sit down by her husband, and comfort him.  
Chris raised his eyes to look in his family's. "Ok, let's be clear. Someone kidnapped Angela, and this someone wants Mike to take me tomorrow night to the Golden Gate park... powerless. Or else, he will kill her. Wyatt has gone down there to see if he can get some information," he said simply.  
Piper gasped in horror, and Bianca felt her heart stop beating.  
"What?" Leo asked, unable to believe what he had heard. "Who can have done this? Why does he want you?" He looked at Michael in search of answers.  
The man swallowed before saying: "It seems... it seems it's that guy who looks like Chris so much."  
"My genetic twin..." Chris clarified, "the one who was supposed to help with the reincarnation of Satan."  
Bianca shivered at the sound of that name, and little Hope started to cry softly, so she had to make her calm down.  
"Oh, my God..." Piper said.  
"How come? He doesn't have powers anymore," Leo said, remembering all the story.  
Chris shrugged, again exchanging a look with Michael: "I guess that's why he wants me powerless."  
Piper shook her head: "He wouldn't be that stupid. You could appear with your powers and annihilate him before he could make the slighter movement. He must have recovered his powers, or has some kind of help..."  
Michael sobbed a little bit, unable to stop himself. "I'm so sorry..." he said again. "This is my fault."  
"No, this isn't. But why didn't you tell us from the very beginning?" Leo inquired.  
Michael shook his head, desperate. "I don't know..."  
"It's ok, dad..." Chris said tiredly, standing up and going towards his friend. "We'll find a way out of this. Don't worry, ok? None of you."  
At that moment they heard the front door. Seconds later Paige went in.  
"Oh , hey Mike," she said surprised about that guest. But then she noticed that he was pale and asked: "Ok, what happened? Where is Wyatt?"  
Piper sighed and stood up: "Come on, we'll go to the attic and search through the book, I'll tell you everything on the way..." Paige just frowned.  
"Wait," Chris said and pulled out the note his genetic twin had left for Michael and gave it to Piper, "maybe you can use this for scrying."  
Paige looked at her nephew, then at her sister and then at Chris again, still frowning. But Piper just grabbed the paper and then Paige's hand and pulled her to the stairs.  
Leo followed them with his eyes. Then he turned to the others: "I need to go back up there... There is a meeting in a couple of minutes..." The others nodded.  
"But don't tell them, ok?" Chris said. "I don't want them to do anything so better they don't know."  
Leo nodded: "What about Odin, maybe..."  
Chris sighed, then he nodded and Leo orbed away.  
Bianca rose, too. "I believe it's time for the kids to have a little nap," she said.  
"Shall I help you?" Chris asked.  
Bianca shook her head, taking baby-Chris to her arms too and calling for Wyatt to follow her. Then she turned to her husband: "It's better you stay with Mike... I'll be fine." Chris nodded with a sigh.

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor sat in his office. He was working through a lot of papers when his phone rang.  
"Yeah," he said.  
"Mr. Bannett, there is a call for you from a Mr. Halliwell," his secretary said.  
'Mr. Halliwell? That must be Chris or Wyatt...' he thought smiling. Then he said: "Put it through..."  
It took a second, then he heard a crunch. "Hello?" Victor said.  
"Hey Victor!"  
"Cole?" he asked surprised when he heard his voice instead of those of his grandsons.  
"Yeah it's me..."  
Victor shook his head: "Sorry, my secretary told me that a Mr. Halliwell wanted to talk to me, so I thought it must be Chris or Wyatt, cause..."  
"Yeah... well... That's why we call you daddy," Phoebe said.  
"Oh hey Phoebe," Victor answered getting more and more confused.  
Suddenly he heard them chuckle at the other end of the line. Then Cole said: "Well, your secretary was right... I'm Mr. Cole Halliwell... since about two hours, thirty-six minutes and... approximately 45 seconds..."  
Victor frowned: "What?"  
Again they chuckled. Then Cole said: "Yeah Daddy, we thought you should be the first to know..."  
Victor kept silent. 'What?' he thought. 'Daddy?' He frowned again, then the truth hit him. "Oh my God," he muttered shocked.  
"Yeah daddy," Phoebe said, "you're right... we did it!"  
"Oh my God," Victor said again, "that's great... but why didn't you tell me before? I mean, I would..."  
Phoebe chuckled: "Dad, don't worry... no one knew... it was just on the spur of the moment... We thought we just do it, before anything could spoil it..."  
"Ah-huh..." Victor was speechless.  
"Yeah," Cole said, "and we will surly have a real celebration someday... But for now, don't tell the others, ok?... Dad..."  
Victor nodded even if they couldn't see him: "I promise."  
"Alright," Phoebe said, "bye dad."  
And also Cole added: "Bye dad."  
"Goodbye," Victor said and hung up the phone still a little confused and shocked. Then he shook his head again and leaned back smiling.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt walked from one cave to the other, just to learn that most of his sources of information not exists in this time... A lot of them are maybe even not born by now. Then he walked through another tunnel till he reached a small door.  
He knocked.  
"What's the keyword?" someone asked.  
Wyatt sighed: "In about 23 years it's 'dawn' and before that it was 'midnight-run'... and hell, I can't remember what it had been before that, but please Julian let me in!"  
It took a moment while Wyatt was shuffling his feet nervously. Then the door opened. "Come in."  
Wyatt entered the dusty cave and looked around. "Much smaller than I had thought," he muttered absent minded. Then he turned to Julian: "Where is he?"  
"Who?" the witch-with-demonic-powers asked.  
"B.," Wyatt answered.  
Julian shook his head frowning: "Why should he be here, I mean that's just my home and..."  
Wyatt sighed then he interrupted the colored witch: "That's not your home, that's the base of 'THE HELPERS INC.'... So where is the other half of the company?"  
Julian wanted to add something, even if he didn't know what, but then they heard another voice.  
"I'm here!"  
Wyatt turned around smiling: "Nice to meet you again, B."  
Belthazor smirked: "What do you want?"  
"Kind as always," Wyatt said. He couldn't help teasing him. But when he saw the angry look on the demons face he added: "We need your help."  
The demon laughed: "I don't think that I have time to..."  
But the twice blessed interrupted him. "I think you've already noticed that I know everything about your business... And I guess this..." he threw five 100-dollar notes on the small table, "... is enough for your services."  
Julian and Belthazor looked to the money and then back to the blonde witch. "Did you tell them?"  
Wyatt chuckled: "No... That's something they have to find out on their own... But this is urgent so I have no time for playing any games."  
Belthazor frowned and thought about all that for a moment. Then he asked: "So what is it that you want us to do?"

°°°°°°°°°°

When Angela woke up she felt a terrible headache. Everything was dark around her and first she didn't know what happened.  
She felt a cold stone in her back and under her butt. And when her eyes got used to the darkness she could see that she was in a cave, an empty cave. She was freezing.  
Suddenly some flames appeared in front of her, and with the flames appeared Chris.  
And that made her suddenly remember. She remembered how he attacked her in her house. How he threw balls of fire after her. How he hit her, so hard that she had passed out.  
But this wasn't Chris... at least she hoped that... it couldn't be him...  
"Who are you?" she asked, even if she was scared to no end.  
The other one grinned. "Me? I'm Cristóbal..."  
She frowned but didn't say anything... she didn't know what to say.  
But the man approached her: "I can't believe that you can trust that Chris and his whole family... You even don't know that you don't know them... But you will..."  
Angela looked at him with fear... She couldn't understand all that, this must be a dream, just a bad nightmare...  
"Drink this," he said and offered her a small bottle with a shiny liquid in it.  
"What is that?" she asked trying to flinch.  
Cris smirked: "A potion... or better an antidote to some Elder-magic... and now drink!" To underline his order the demon formed a fireball with his other hand.  
Angela felt panic, she started to cry. Cris sighed and threw the fire ball to the wall, next to her head, making her scream. "I said DRINK!" he yelled.  
Quickly she took the bottle and swallowed down the potion. It tasted sweet like sugar-water.  
Cris smiled, then he flamed out.  
Angela started confused at the spot where the demon had stood a second before. But suddenly she began to feel dizzy... and then she started to remember...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris sighed. He and Michael had sat in front of each other without saying a word, for about half an hour.  
"I'm sorry," Chris said then.  
His friend looked at him confused: "For what?"  
"Because it's my fault, that all this happens to you... If I wouldn't..."  
"No, Chris!" Michael interrupted him. "You saved me, forgotten? You saved me from that hologram-plane, or whatever you call it... and you saved Angy too, and all the other couples... There is nothing you have to feel sorry about..."  
"I could have used that memory-dust on you, too..." Chris remarked, "then you wouldn't sit here now for sure..."  
Michael's eyes turned wet again. He had thought about that on his own. That they would be spared from all this, if he had just forgotten like the others, like his wife... But he couldn't... He didn't want to... "Then I had lost my best friend... and that's something I didn't want," he said finally, with a nearly braking voice.  
Chris swallowed. He didn't know what to answer so he just nodded.  
They kept silent for another ten minutes, then Chris stood up: "I'll get us something to drink." Michael nodded as his friend walked into the kitchen.  
But a moment later he froze when someone else entered the room through the other door... someone looking exactly like Chris... 'The evil twin of his friend,' he thought.  
"Hey Mickey," the other one said grinning. "Where is...?"  
At that moment Chris returned. He dropped the glasses at the sight of the intruder and threw a flash of energy after him.  
"What the hell..." His double jumped behind the sofa.  
"Where is Angela? Where is she?" Chris yelled.  
The other one rose again looking at Chris confused: "Hey maxi-me, are you crazy?"

_

* * *

(Chapter 2 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén) _


	3. Chapter 3

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 3**

_Sometimes in the future:_  
Hope entered the small room of her grand-cousin: "Hey Nicki, have you seen my potion-book?"  
"Nope," the teen said without looking up. She was submerged in a magazine about music.  
"Thanks," Hope said and closed the door, shaking her head. Then she headed upstairs to ask her grand-aunts. But they also haven't seen it.  
So she walked over to Patty's room. She had already heard that she was at home from downstairs... her music wasn't to overhear, and when she opened her door it was like she entered the stage of a rock-concert.  
"Hey!" Patty screamed. "Never heard of the word privacy... Why don't you knock?"  
Hope went over to the music-station and turned it off: "Because you wouldn't have heard it... Have you seen my potion-book?"  
"Why should I... ask Nicki or Jim or Christopher or maybe ask Prisca..." the teen snapped.  
"I already asked your sister and your cousin, and Christopher isn't at home as it seems... and Prisca is with my dad..."  
"So ask him..."  
Hope rolled her eyes. Then she left the room, slamming the door. She hadn't made more than two steps when the music again sounded through the whole house. "If she wouldn't be one of the next charmed ones, I would kill her," Hope muttered angry and went upstairs.  
Since they enlarged half of the attic, and made three small rooms out of that part about 10 years ago, this was the home of her and her part of this far too large family... well at least at the weekends - the other time they spend still at the school.  
The rest of the attic they had left untouched, just to remember the "old days"  
"Dad, are you here?" she asked.  
"I am!" she heard him from the old part of the attic. She went through the door to find her father in front of the book-rest searching through the Book of Shadows while Prisca stood in front of him, waiting uneasy.  
"I told you it's not in there," she said impatient.  
Chris looked at the 12 year old girl and smiled: "Seems my little sister is right."  
Hope sighed: "Dad? Prisca? Have you seen my potion-book?" Prisca shook her head energetically, same as Chris. She sighed and sat down on the far too old sofa.  
Chris smiled and went over to her: "You'll find it... Why don't you get to the pas..." He stopped suddenly.  
"What is it dad?" Hope asked worried.  
Chris frowned: "I feel a shift in time... something is changing..."  
"What?" his daughter asked worried. And then she quickly added: "I didn't do anything..."  
"Oh my God," Chris said, ignoring Hope's last comment, "I think I know who had taken your book because... I remember your uncle... in the past."

°°°°°°°°°°

_Back in our time:_  
"What have you said?" Chris asked astonished.  
Michael looked from one to the other not sure what was going on. Why didn't Chris kill that demon?  
"I asked you if you're crazy, damned!" his double asked.  
"I meant before... before..." Chris couldn't believe it... that was impossible... that... But suddenly he knew it was true. He could feel it. "Oh my God," he muttered. His senses wouldn't lie to him, would they? That was so unbelievable.  
At that moment Paige orbed in, together with Piper. When they saw the intruder they were shocked for a moment.  
Then, when Piper was sure about who was her son, she tried to blow up the other, but the man who looked like Chris ducked right in time. Paige summoned a knife and threw it at the man just that second Chris yelled: "NOOOOO!"  
This time the other one wasn't fast enough. He got hit in his shoulder. "Damned!" he cursed and sank down on the sofa. "That hurts!"  
"STOP IT! Oh my God! STOP IT!" Chris yelled and stepped into the way, when Piper rose her hands again.  
"Huh?" the witches looked at him frowning.  
Chris rushed over to the wounded young man, kneeling down next to him. "You ok?" he asked and the other one winced a little but nodded.  
Chris sighed and grabbed the handle of the knife: "Ok, that could hurt now a little..."  
"Are you kidding?" the other one replied grimacing.  
Chris couldn't help chuckling a little. Then he pulled the knife out of the other's shoulder, which made the man moan in pain. As soon as this was done, Chris started to heal him, while he turned to his mother and aunt, who looked completely confused, and said: "That isn't the demon, that's mini-me!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt looked in Belthazor's eyes, waiting for an answer. He needed his help, and he knew he would help them, because his future was good.  
He did not want to think that something had change just because he was in the past. Maybe he had done something, but... what? He could not think about anything that could have affected Michael, in any way.  
But that was the butterfly effect!! A butterfly moves a wing in a corner of the world, and this action will cause a tornado in the other corner. Who knew what he had done, but now he was sure that he should have gone back to the future. Chris and his paranoid future consequences were right...  
However, he now knew that this future Chris had allowed him to stay... Perhaps he knew that Angela would need him there?  
He did not have time to think more about it, because Belthazor said very slowly: "So it seems that the genetic twin of your little brother is back, and has kidnapped a woman... And you wanna know if I have heard something about him." He exchanged a significant look with Julian, as Wyatt nodded.  
"He wants Chris as a random for her... But you know as well as I do that we CAN'T do that. Not just because he's my brother."  
Belthazor burst into laughter: "You know better than me for sure, future boy..."  
"We know that Chris is good, and he has done many good things. He's necessary to keep the balance between good and evil... But he's out of every timeline, Wyatt. And that... genetic twin of his... He lives in the right time," Julian said.  
Wyatt frowned at these words and looked at both men-demons-witches-whatever, startled. "W-w-what do you mean?" he stuttered.  
Belthazor sighed, stopping his laughter little by little: "What he means is that Cristóbal, his genetic twin, belongs to this time. He's in the right place. And Chris's mini-self is too, but he, our beloved Chris, does not belong here."  
"So what?" Wyatt asked, somehow angry, somehow terrified. "He was in my future, he has to be there!"  
"Maybe your future is wrong..." shrugged Julian. "And maybe you should go back, because the same thing could happen to you. This is not your place."  
Wyatt shook his head: "I can't believe what you guys are saying. You are with Chris, you always were."  
"We are with the balance of evil-good forces. We thought Chris was necessary for that. But now we think we might be wrong."  
"That's not true!" Wyatt stamped his fist on a wooden table. "Chris is in my future, he is important for that future, more than you can ever imagine, and he's even important for you! I'm gonna keep that future with or without your help!"  
Julian and Belthazor exchanged their looks again. "Do what you have to do," Belthazor said, "we cannot help you in this."  
"I will, and I will remind you of this in the future," Wyatt answered defiantly. Then he turned on his feet to leave, but Belthazor held him by his shoulder.  
"Cristóbal is back, Wyatt... I mean: He's got new powers, and he's got some help. Be careful. That's all we can do for you," Julian explained.  
Wyatt looked at him and then at Belthazor's eyes, who nodded. "Good luck." The giant red demon said with his rough voice.  
Wyatt did not know what to think, but finally he nodded back and left with a really bad feeling.

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael was looking at the two men confused. If he closed his eyes and opened them again to find them in a different place, he would not be able to recognise them at all.  
Piper opened her mouth widely, and went wordless, and Paige could not believe what she had heard. "I don't believe you," she said, getting back the knife and pointing at the young man with it.  
"Aunt Paige!" both Chrises cried at the same time, and then they looked at each other.  
"I think you are that bastard, that demonic twin of my nephew, come on, guys!!! Isn't it too much of chance, that Cristóbal has reappeared right now, when this man who claims to be our baby Chris is here too??" And approaching the young man lying on the sofa, she added menacingly: "What the hell do you want of Chris, and where's Angela?"  
Christopher looked at the knife in horror and then at his old self, who took Paige's arm and tried to make her calm down.  
"I believe him. I mean, this can't be that evil genetic twin of mine, come on... look at him."  
"Hey!" Christopher cried, angrily. "That's mean!"  
Chris shrugged: "No offence intended, sorry..." Then he turned to Paige again: "There is not even a single evil bone in him."  
Piper was still startled, and didn't know what to say: "Well... Did I let you come here? Did Leo do that? Or this other Chris?" Christopher shook his head, and Paige pushed her knife against his neck, making him shiver.  
"Then I guess I should ground you young man..." Piper answered, angrily. "And Paige, for God's sake... don't hurt him anymore."  
Paige growled but took the knife away, letting Christopher breathe calmer.  
But then Michael spoke: "How do you all know it's him?" he asked. "As far as I know, that Cristóbal could fake you perfectly well, Chris."  
"But he called me 'maxi-me'. I don't think that demon knows that I call him 'mini-me'," Chris said with a grin. Christopher nodded even if he didn't know what was going on.  
"That's not a good proof..."  
"You want a proof, Mickey?" Christopher said, standing up a bit tired of all that argument. Michael frowned... Only Wyatt had called him like that. Did Cristóbal know that?  
"I can... I can orb," Christopher said, and orbed before the startled looks of the others. Then he reappeared. "Happy now?" He folded his arms in front of his chest.  
Chris shrugged: "And I can feel that it's him... I guess that's enough, isn't it?"  
Paige stared at him and them wrapped him in her arms. "Oh, my little lovely nephew, I can't believe we're seeing you here! Please be careful not to get stuck in this time, I won't be able to have three versions of you around, that'd be too much!" she said really fast.  
Chris cried: "Hey! That's mean!"  
But Christopher chuckled this time: "You'll never change..."  
Piper shook her head, astonished: "Whatever. You're still grounded. No milk today, only water."  
Michael looked at the scene unable to believe what his eyes were showing to him. But that meant something. They had three people looking exactly the same.  
He cleared his voice: "Hey... would you mind... go back to my problem? Please..." He was really worried about what could be happening to his wife meanwhile.

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo was pacing in front of Odin's desk. "But he's one of us!" he yelled for the hundred of time. "We have to help him!"  
Odin sighed: "You should know, that I agree with you... after all what had happened. But you also know, most of the other Elders still think that he doesn't belong here." Leo rolled his eyes frustrated. "If you now ask the council, you will only gain the opposite," Odin went on.  
"But you're the leader, aren't you?"  
The Elder grinned: "You know that there is no leader... But if you are pointing on my influence...? Yes, they trust me, and my opinion. But that will not last forever if I keep on supporting your son that official..."  
Leo nodded: "Yeah... it's good to have someone on our side, who knows everything that is going on up here... as long as you ARE on our side."  
Odin sighed: "I AM... At the beginning I was not, that's true... But that he went to the fields... and after all what your grandchild showed to me... All that made me trust you and believe in your son."  
Leo grinned. He couldn't help asking: "So will you tell me what you saw?"  
"I can't my old friend, and you know that! Future..."  
"... consequences..." Leo ended his friends sentence and couldn't help chuckling. That was too weird.  
But then he suddenly felt something... he felt like one of his charges had an echo... Like, when... He turned pale.  
"What?" Odin asked. But then he felt it too. Like a double signal... another timetraveller... another Chris.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris looked at his friend and then back at that not-that-little 'mini-version' of himself. There was an idea forming in his mind, but still it was to foggy.  
"We looked through the book," Paige said to Michael, "nothing helpful."  
"Yeah, we know too less about that twin-thing," Piper added.  
Christopher sighed: "Can anybody explain to me what the hell is going on here?"  
Chris was about to answer when bluish orbing lights filled the room. Seconds later Wyatt materialised looking really angry.  
"What the hell are you doing here?" he started yelling at his really-younger brother. "Are you completely nuts?"  
Christopher got a little paler. "It took a while for you to notice me," he said and flinched a little.  
"Do you know how much trouble you could curse by coming here?" Wyatt kept on yelling.  
Chris put his hand on his brothers shoulder: "Calm down, ok? He had already experienced some trouble when Mom and Paige thought he was my demonic twin..."  
Wyatt looked from Chris to Christopher who tried to smile but failed. Then he asked him: "How did you get here?"  
"That's a good question," Chris agreed, "so?"  
"I borrowed a potion from Hope..." Christopher answered shyly.  
Wyatt was wild gesturing with his hands: "Great, just great!  
Piper sighed and put an arm around her baby: "You shouldn't be so hard to him." Then she turned to him and said: "I'm happy that my little Chris is here... It's good to see that you're a fine boy."  
All three man rolled with their eyes. But before any of them could say something Paige got back to the point and asked: "So why did you come here?"  
Christopher shrugged: "I... I just wanted to meet Chris too...This Chris, from this time, I mean. He's our... our hero... It's unfair that Wyatt could meet him twice times and me not!" Chris blushed by this words.  
"So you came here, because you're jealous?" Wyatt asked not believing what he heard. His little brother just shrugged again.  
Piper smiled at Christopher. Then she took his hand and rose. "Come on Chris, I think we should go to..."  
"Mom!" Christopher exclaimed angry, "could you please stop calling me like that? You didn't call me Chris since I turned four!"  
His mother looked at him frowning: "Why not? I mean why wouldn't I..."  
"Because I asked you to!" Christopher said and then pointed at Chris. "I am not him!"  
Piper looked at him confused. But Wyatt nodded: "Yeah, you all will call him Christopher..." His little brother grimaced.  
Meanwhile Chris looked at Michael. His friend was hiding his face in his hands. He sighed and went over to him, while the rest of the family kept on discussing that name-stuff.  
"Are you ok?" he asked softly.  
Michael looked up: "What do you think?"  
Chris sighed again and sat down next to him. He put his arm around his friend and said: "We will find her... And I think mini-me will be very useful for that..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki had gone near the room where Steve and Tom were talking, and had eavesdropped, unable to wait outside without a clue of what was going on inside.  
She heard with tears in her eyes how Tom told Steve that he had shared his dreams. That he had somehow undergone the same suffering. Nicki shook her head. She wished she had been able to do that, but she hadn't. Even if she had entered his dreams, she couldn't remember what she had seen there.  
Suddenly, after a while of silence, she heard steps going towards the door. She startled and then she rushed to the bathroom by the room, and washed her face. Right at that moment the door opened and Tom appeared. His eyes were red too... He had cried.  
Nicki dried her face and went out to meet him, when he was just closing the door behind himself.  
"Hey..." she said in a very trembling voice.  
Tom turned to look at her, and smiled weakly. "Hey..." He said tiredly.  
They kept staring at each other in an embarrassing silence, until the girl asked: "How did it go?"  
Tom shrugged, and sighed: "Well... He cried. At least that's something."  
"What do you mean?" Nicki had seen him crying all the time since he was back.  
"I mean, he cried with me; he didn't try to throw me away again. He did at first, but then he hugged me and cried like a little baby."  
Nicki frowned: "Did he talk to you?"  
Tom shook his head. "No. But there was no use. I already know a lot, most of it maybe. I told him. However, I'm sure he'll talk to you now, Nicki." He smiled, as the girl stared at him wonderingly and then turned her eyes to the door behind which Steve was hidden.  
"Are you sure?" she asked, not very convinced.  
Tom nodded. "Go ahead," he said. "I should leave now." He wouldn't say it, but he wanted to start to investigate about that son of a bitch that had done that to his best friend in the world.  
Nicki muttered a very low 'ok', and stepped towards the door, as Tom, after observing her for a couple of seconds, shimmered away. Nicki knocked on Steve's door, and then opened it without waiting for an answer, but peering through the thin gap opened between the door and the wall.

°°°°°°°°°°

"...Well, mom, you chose the name Christopher for me. CHRIS-TO-PHER. The whole name."  
"But you said your name was Chris, I mean..." Piper was messing everything up.  
"NO! Chris said he was Chris... Chris Perry, or whatever. I am CHRISTOPHER! You see?? That is what I mean? I am not HIM!"  
Paige looked at Wyatt and sighed. Wyatt, then, put a hand on his brother's shoulder: "Little brat, this is not time for this kind of argument. We're having some sort of a problem here. We don't need a lecture now on why you wanna be called Christopher, and why you are not Chris or whatever, ok?"  
"Chris??" It was Leo's voice. He had just orbed in the lounge and was looking startled at his family.  
"What??" two voices sounding like exactly the same answered also at the same time.  
"See?? You go by Chris! Ha!" Piper exclaimed triumphantly.  
Christopher rolled his eyes, annoyed. "He doesn't know, ok? By the way, daddy, please... call me Chris-to-pher," he said tiredly.  
Chris chuckled a little bit. Michael had just asked him how his grown-up mini-self was supposed to help them in that, when Leo had appeared and the rest of the conversation had taken place.  
"What is going on here?" Leo looked very nervous. "Me and Odin could feel that there was some time traveller, he knows now about you. This is very dangerous you know? " He looked at Chris, and started to wonder if he was talking to the right version, but he had to, because his Chris was with Michael. That could not his baby...  
"They can do something to Chris, right? I mean..." Christopher said, looking at them innocently.  
"Enough, Christopher. Timetravel is not funny; it could be dangerous, ok? So cut the crap. This is not a game, brother," Wyatt said angrily. "And you might be messing everything up right now."  
Christopher scratched his head feeling embarrassed and guilty, and Piper couldn't help smiling sweetly. The same person but completely different. If there was something clear than that this little baby, this new Chris, had not undergone the same pains as his older version. He was more innocent, more childish even, less worried. But her thoughts were interrupted by a very-well known voice, the always-worried voice of their Chris.  
"Ok, people. Would you mind to come back to our main topic today, and focus? Mom, dad, Wyatt, we can deal with my little self and his little prank later; he might be even useful now. And Christopher... we can discuss the importance of being Chris later too, ok? Then you'll let me know which is the problem, I guess we're gonna need to talk."  
This time it was Paige that smirked. That was her nephew, the sarcastic and paranoid Chris. The other one did not seem to understand the sense and subtlety of sarcasm.  
"And now..." he sighed, once he saw he had gained the attention of everyone in the lounge. "Let's find Angy. First, Wyatt, please, let us know what you found out if something down there... and then, I have an idea."

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca was trying to make baby Chris calm down. Hope had fallen asleep almost immediately, and Wyatt had required a tale.  
Actually, he wanted Cole to read it, but Bianca said that Uncle Cole was very busy killing an evil demon that wanted to kidnap little Chris, and he had left early that morning to fight several demons who were trying to catch him, and... Little by little Wyatt fell asleep.  
But it was then when little Chris started to cry. The poor woman sighed and took him in her arms.  
"I can't believe you're gonna be my sweet sarcastic husband in the future. Or now... Or..." she frowned. "Whatever. Thanks God you don't understand me."  
The baby went on crying, ignoring her voice. She started to move around the room, and said: "I can hum your favorite music if you like... What about the soundtrack of Back to the Future?"  
She chuckled, and the baby cried louder. "Alright. I know... No time travelling. Future consequences..."  
Then she heard some yells and cries downstairs. It seemed as if they were fighting, but it sounded somehow confusing. Then he heard Chris's voice, and actually he was talking a lot. Quite a lot. She couldn't understand what they said, but they seemed to be arguing, so finally she relaxed.  
It had been a false alarm. Nothing to worry about. Baby Chris went on crying, so she tried singing a lullaby this time.

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe and Cole were still lying in bed. They had ordered some lunch from the room service, had eaten it, and again had a lot fun together. Now they were both sleeping peacefully.  
Phoebe smiled, surely dreaming of something wonderful. But Cole's sleep became more and more uneasy. He started sweating and tossing around. Then he screamed and sat up startled. Breathing heavily he stared into the nothing in front of him.  
"What happened?" Phoebe asked sleepy.  
Her husband fall back to the pillow, not answering.  
"Cole?" she asked again.  
He turned his head to look at her. His eyes were worried. "I had a strange dream," he said slowly, "and I fear there is more about it... Something is going on at home."  
Phoebe smiled, caressing his cheek softly: "Stop worrying, ok? We will have a day without any worries today..."  
"But..."  
She put her finger on his lips to stop him: "This is our honeymoon, sweetie... and that wasn't a premonition, it was just a dream..."  
Cole shook his head: "I didn't said I had a premonition... it's just a feeling... What if that's also a kind of power... What if...?"  
Phoebe chuckled: "I didn't know that you are so interested in having new witch-powers..."  
Cole sighed, looking at her serious: "I think you know what I mean... right?"  
She nodded. "Ok sweetie, I understand you... but don't you think that Paige or Chris would pick us up if there would be any serious problems?" she asked. But before he could answer something, she gave him a kiss.  
Cole smiled: "Alright..." Then he kissed her again...

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin was on his way to Silas, when another Elder crossed his way. "Oh, hello Jeremiah," he greeted. The other one just nodded.  
"How are you? I haven't seen you for a while... well, except the meetings," Odin said smiling.  
Jeremiah had always been a friend of him. But now, it seemed to him that something was wrong. Because Jeremiah answered with a cold voice: "Well I guess that's because your priorities have changed... excuse me, I have to work." He nodded again and walked away.  
Odin followed him with his eyes. Then he shook his head and went on.  
Five minutes later he sat down next to Silas who was submerged into a book. But when he noticed his friend he looked up. "What's wrong?" he asked seeing that expression in Odin's eyes, that told him he was hard thinking.  
"I met Jeremiah. He was so aloof."  
Silas nodded: "There are two groups forming as it seems... Those who do support Chris, and those who do not... And Jeremiah does not..."  
Odin sighed. He had already felt, that the council was kind of divided lately...  
"Oh come on," Silas said smiling, "after all you told me about the future we're going to, there is absolutely no reason to worry."  
Odin nodded: "Yes... But those pictures could change... and the fact that Christopher is here now too... that could disturb the balance."  
Silas looked at him frowning: "What Christopher?... Oh wait... Don't tell me, that Chris's little version came from the future, too."

_

* * *

(Chapter 3 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)_


	4. Chapter 4

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 4**

Christopher went up the stairs. Wyatt was telling the family what he had found out, Christopher should be with them too... But nature was calling, he really needed to go to the bathroom.  
Short before he reached his destination, the door to the kids-room was opened.  
"Hey honey," Bianca said. She hugged him and gave him a loving kiss.  
Christopher was too surprised to react... He was just like frozen in shock.  
Bianca looked at him frowning, when he didn't answer her kiss: "What's wrong?"  
At that moment Chris orbed in, in her back. He had felt the confusion of his 'brother'. But Bianca kept looking at the blushing Christopher, so her husband cleared his throat.  
Finally she turned around looking at Chris confused, then she looked at Christopher, and then at Chris. "What's going on here?" she asked and stepped backwards, suddenly afraid that one of them was the demon.  
But Chris kept grinning. He went over to her and put his hands around her waist: "You know honey... if Wyatt wouldn't have told me that you are not his kind of girl, I would be really jealous now?"  
Christopher looked to his feet. He felt embarrassed. Being kissed like that by the wife of your brother was... well it wasn't good... A great impression he had made with that. 'That's typical for you, Christopher,' he thought to himself. He just hoped Chris wouldn't be too angry...  
Bianca was still frowning. But Chris went on: "May I introduce you to 'mini-me'?"  
Suddenly Bianca's eyes grew wide, when she began to understand all that. "WHAT?" she exclaimed.  
Chris began to chuckle, and when Christopher realised that his brother wasn't pissed off at all, like he had thought he would be, he chuckled too.  
Now Bianca was the one who blushed. "Sorry," she said to Christopher, "I really didn't..."  
"Never mind," he said, "but now... excuse me!" With this words he went to the bathroom and closed the door behind him.  
Bianca turned back to the grinning Chris: "Why didn't you tell me?"  
"He arrived just a few minutes ago... and I thought you were sleeping. I'm sorry."  
"That's amazing," she said.  
Chris nodded: "I know... and so weird."  
Bianca smiled and kissed him. Then she wrinkled her nose and frowned, like if she would thinking really hard: "Well... He's kissing very much like you..."  
Now Chris frowned in response. "Really?" he asked and then kissed again, this time wild and with all his heart, making her moan against his lips...  
When he finally released his wife she smiled widely: "I think I have to correct myself... you're kissing veeeeeeery much better."  
Chris grinned. "Ohhh I hope so..." he replied and kissed her another time.  
"Come on, let's go down there..." she said when she had finally freed herself from his kiss, which wasn't that easy at all. "There is still a friend who needs our help."  
Chris nodded with a sigh. Then he took her hand and orbed with her back to the others.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Nicki looked into the bedroom, Steve was sitting on the bed. His back turned to the door, he was looking out of the window.  
When she saw him like that, she was about to leave him alone again, to give him some time to relax from Tom's visit. But when she turned to leave, Steve suddenly said: "No... Please... don't go." He didn't move, he just said that.  
Nicki was unsure what to do. She didn't know if she should get closer to him, or better not. She didn't want to make him flinch again. She sighed. Then she put all her strength together and walked over to him.  
She sat down on the bed, next to him. She felt her heart beating faster and tears welling up... tears of anger and frustration, because she could do nothing to take that pain away from him.  
And she felt guilty... guilty because she didn't noticed that Adam was involved in all that... she should have noticed it... she should have... And she felt guilty, because she didn't go to search for him, when he didn't came that evening... because she had waited till the next morning... If she hadn't, they maybe would have found him earlier...  
Steve took a deep breath. Then he slowly turned to her, to look at her. It hurt him so much to see her crying. It hurt him so much to know what he had done to her, when he wasn't himself. He had hurt her... He knew he wouldn't never be able to forgive himself for that... Even if she kept saying that she wouldn't mind.  
"I'm sorry," he said.  
"No, honey... don't feel like that..." Nicki said under her sobs. "Please... all I want is that you don't push me away again, ok? I want to be there for you... I... I love you."  
Steve closed his eyes, when the tears fought their way out of them. Nicki shook her head, helpless. Then she pulled him into a strong hug, crying too, crying with him.  
Steve cried, he cried his eyes out. He wanted it to stop, but it didn't. This time his tears were stronger than his will.

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela was completely freaked out by what she had seen. What she had remembered, actually. Some minutes ago she was afraid of that fake Chris that had kidnapped her, but now? Now she also feared Chris Halliwell and his family... She remembered everything, all that had happened in those 20 years she thought she had lost somehow. She remembered, that she had been imprisoned in a magical world, that she had been held ransom... everything.  
Therefore, she had been living a lie all that time! She couldn't believe it... Even Michael had lied to her. Or was he in the same situation? Did he know who Chris was? A weird monstrous magical being?  
Suddenly she felt bad for having thinking that way. She also remembered that he had saved them all. All those people...  
Angela shivered and pressed her body against the wall behind her, a cold and rough rock. She hadn't been bound or anything. For what? She would not be able to escape anyway. Actually, she would not dare to move.  
At that very moment she was so afraid that the only thing she got to do was curling on the floor and starting to cry hysterically. She needed to wake up, she needed to wake up, she needed to wake up... But every time she opened her eyes, there she was, in that terrific cave, all alone.

°°°°°°°°°°

"I got her," said Cris to the demon he had in front of him.  
"Well done. But be careful... They won't give up so easily."  
Cris smirked: "I know... I'm just like him, remember?"  
The other demon nodded slowly: "I gave you these powers because I trusted you. And I'm impressed how quick you learned to handle your new powers, but... Don't disappoint me, Cristóbal."  
"I wouldn't. I wanna see that Chris dead as much as you."  
"I want to see the whole family dead. Last time I failed. This time I don't want to make the same mistakes."  
Cris nodded simply. "I won't fail. I'll get Chris, and you'll have the rest of the clan. But don't forget your part of the deal... I want Chris for me."  
The other demon smirked: "I will give you your prize..." Then he added in a threatening tone: "But don't you forget that here, I am the boss."  
"Of course..." Cris answered, half-smiling ironically in the darkness of the cave. Then he shimmered away.  
The time was coming... After Cris had disappeared, the old demon went outside to listen to his beloved wolves howling at the moon.

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom got home and said hello to Veronica absent-mindedly, as he headed into his room.  
"Hey, are you ok, honey?" she asked when she saw him rushing by the lounge, where she was.  
"Yeah, I'm in a hurry, that's all." he said in a loud voice, while he opened the drawers in search for something.  
Veronica frowned and went to him. "How was Steve?" she asked, staring at her frenetic boyfriend.  
"The same as always. I mean, the same as he has been these two days."  
Veronica nodded, without taking her eyes away from him, as he continued moving around the room. "What about you?"  
Tom turned to look at her, so she could see his red eyes. "Oh... Honey, have you been crying?" She went nearer and then hugged him, but Tom shook his head.  
"I'm ok, I don't have much time."  
"For what?" Veronica asked, somehow annoyed for his rejection, and also surprised.  
"I'm gonna find that demon. I've seen him... I've seen what Steve saw, everything. I think I can find him."  
"If you could he'd also be able to, but he can't say where he is, or how to find him."  
Tom stopped again his searching, and took Veronica's face in his hands: "Sweetie, I know... But first, he's totally freaked out. My mind is clear. Second, he doesn't want to find him, he just wants to forget. I do wanna find him. And third, I think we can do it. I wrote somewhere what I saw in his mind. Every detail. I mean... We only need to work as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, we only need to think as them. Where can we find caves?"  
"In the Underworld?" Veronica said sceptically.  
"Caves, and moisture? Caves and the smell of nature? Caves with fresh air? And wolves around it?"  
Veronica frowned. "Steve didn't say anything about that..."  
"But he saw it! Or at least he felt it! He couldn't see but the smells, the noises... were there. Unconsciously he did!" he gestured exaggeratedly.  
"Anyway... that could be lots of places."  
"But something to begin with, girl!" he said impatiently.  
Veronica rolled her eyes. When Tom became so passionate about something it was impossible to persuade him not to go on. "Ok... What do we do?"  
Tom smirked: "Go to the Underworld and find out who's hiding in woods and where?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris orbed in with Bianca downstairs. "Found out anything else?" he asked as soon as they had appeared.  
Piper sighed and then she just rattled: "We only had a couple of minutes, there's just a tiny chance we did, and we didn't." She saw a vase, looked at it very strange and then blew it up. "I never liked that vase," she said right after it.  
Now the entire family (at least those, who had been there) sighed. "Honey, you don't have to blow things up when you don't like them," Leo said with that typical soft voice, "you did that once and we all know what happened then." After those words Piper calmed down and turned her attention back to the discussion.  
Then Christopher came downstairs too: "Found out anything else?"

°°°°°°°°°°

_Phoebe was dreaming about her wedding, she was still so happy! Then suddenly she got a premonition, she was sure that it was one, she had that feeling.  
"Cole!! Wake up!!" she screamed and Cole slowly did... she grabbed him by his arms and started to shake him up and down, sort of.  
Soon Cole was fully awake and terrified: "What...? What's wrong honey? What is it?" Phoebe didn't say anything, she just collapsed.  
"Phoebe, honey, wake up!" He listened to her heart. She wasn't breathing.  
"CHRIS!!!!!!!!!!!! LEO!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled as hard as he could, he couldn't lose her, he just couldn't. _

°°°°°°°°°°

"Cole!" Chris said again shaking his uncle. Phoebe sat on the other side in the bed looking worried at her husband. He was crying in his sleep, so loud that even Chris came when he called for him.  
"Cole!" he said again. Meanwhile Phoebe started to cry flashed by the mass of emotions he was sending out.  
Finally the man opened his eyes slowly, still breathing heavily. But then he sat up startled and yelled: "PHOEBE!"  
"I'm here," she said and hugged him from behind.  
Cole turned around and looked at her shocked. "You...? What...? You were...?? I..." he didn't know what to say. He felt weird and his mind was spinning.  
"You've been dreaming," Chris explained.  
Cole sighed relieved, coming back to reality, realising that Phoebe was alive, that she was next to him, with him... still alive. He took her head into his hands and kissed her.  
That was when Chris noticed the ring on his finger, wondering. But then he began to understand. Smiling widely he thought: 'THAT's so great... and really Cole-like...' He had a hard time not to start chuckling: 'If mom would know that...'  
But then he turned serious again: "So what was it, your dream I mean... Why did you call me?"  
Cole looked back at him: "I saw... I saw Phoebe dying... actually I was asleep and suddenly she yelled she had a premonition, and that I need to wake up... and then she broke down, not breathing... I... I just couldn't..."  
"Shhhhhh..." Phoebe hugged him. "Don't worry, I'm here and I'm alright..."  
Cole nodded: "But I still have the feeling that something is wrong..." Then he turned to Chris again: "Earlier that day I had another dream where you and Wyatt got attacked at the manor... And I felt strange after that... like I feel now..." He made a short brake: "I... I mean... Is everything alright?"  
Chris looked at his uncle thinking about what to say... Of course nothing was alright at the moment, but after all... this was their honeymoon, for God's sake. And he didn't want to spoil that... They deserved some time off, like he had with his wife... even if he also could really enjoy only a few days of that time...  
"Everything's fine," he answered therefore. Then he stood up: "I have to go now... I promised Bianca to be back as soon as possible. See you tomorrow!" And with this he orbed away.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Sometimes in the future:_  
Chris had sat down next to his daughter. He was hiding his face in his hands now, trying to reorganise his mind. He tried to get a clear look on all that... all this mess, his little version was about to cause, or already did... whatever...  
"Dad?" Hope asked worried and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"What happened, Chris?" Prisca asked.  
"Christopher," he said slowly, "he had messed up everything." Then he looked up and straight to his daughters eyes: "Call the family together, we need to stop that from happening."  
Hope nodded and orbed away.  
Only ten minutes later, they all sat in the kitchen. Chris was sitting between his wife and daughter, his mother sit face to him, Leo stood behind her. Cole and Phoebe stood in one corner, while Paige and Kyle sat near the door. Jim was also their, even if Chris didn't 'invite' the 'kids'... But at least he was one of the new generation of the power of three... and differently from Patty and Nicki, he was really interested in all magic-stuff. Julia was also there, Hope had picked her and her parents up too... Even if Michael and Angela didn't like what was going on between Julia and Wyatt, they were part of the family, not only because of that... And finally on the other side of the table sat Odin and Silas. Everything seemed to be an usual meeting (well, except that Michael's family was usually not there...) everything was like it always had been... But not for Chris!  
When he tried again to explain and they didn't understand, he was close to freak out. "THIS IS WRONG!" he yelled.  
"Chris, I don't understand..." Leo said tiredly.  
But Cole interrupted him: "When Chris says this is wrong, then it IS wrong. You know he's the only one who recognise the consequences of a shift in time."  
Chris sighed: "Thanks uncle." At least one person was believing him.  
"So what is it exactly that is wrong?" Odin asked.  
"For example that we don't have that discussion up there..." he answered pointing at the ceiling.  
Piper sighed confused: "But we never had a talk like that up there... the other Elders don't trust you, or us..."  
"Yeah," Chris answered, "because I vanquished that bastard, before he could attack them... I vanquished him before he could do anything like that, just because of Christopher... Just because he was there and helped us, when we freed Angy from Cristóbal and that demon. You remember?"  
"So you want me to suffer by the hands of that demon, just to be more up there?" Angela asked unsure what to think about all that.  
Chris rolled his eyes: "No... of course not... the first time, I freed you on my own and vanquished Cristóbal, but not Rhashirk! He escaped... but he will not, when Christopher is there too... And I don't just want to be more up there... The Elders are supposed to trust me when we save them... But I didn't... I did it before they knew they were in danger... THAT's the problem!"  
Hope leaned back on the chair, focused on her fathers eyes: "So shall I go back and pick him up?"  
"No!... the time is to unstable at the moment, timetravelling is too dangerous now..." Chris said who felt that there were still little shifts here and there, "no one could say where you will rematerialise... we have to find another way."

°°°°°°°°°°

_Back in our time:_  
Chris orbed back to the family-meeting. He gave his best not to smile widely about the 'great news' he found out. First, it wasn't the right moment, they had other things to worry. And Second, Cole and Phoebe surly didn't want him to spoil their secret. But keeping his mouth shut was really hard.  
"So what was wrong?" Leo asked. He had heard Cole's cry too, but they thought one of them would be enough.  
"Nothing, he had just a bad dream," Chris explained and then quickly changed the topic turning to Christopher, "so what will we do now? Actually I had an idea, but I'm not sure if you will like that, mini-me."  
Christopher looked up: "Well... MAXI-ME... I guess I already know your plan... you want me to play you, right?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela's heart was beating irregularly, and she was trying to control her breathing, to calm down. But anxiety was gaining ground... She was still trying to assimilate all her long ago forgotten memories, when some flames prepared the ground for Cristóbal, who reappeared in front of her with his lips shaping an evil smile.  
"Hey, sweetie, how are you doing with your memories? It seems you don't like them much..."  
Angela bent her legs and tried to find a self-protecting position, shivering under her now wet clothes. She was sweating because of the fear...  
Cris shook his head at the same time as he made a noise with his tongue: "Sad to find out that the people you trust are not what they seem... You know what?? Your husband knew that too. He lied to you."  
"No, you do, bastard." Angela didn't know where that bravery had come from, but as soon as she had let it out, she regretted it and the shivers became more intense.  
Cris turned red in anger. "Don't dare to talk to me that way!" he yelled. "You don't know where you are, who your enemy is! Watch out... you'd better shut up now, or I'll gag you, little rat." He kicked a stone that hit very near her face, making her whimper in fear.  
'Just a couple of hours Cris... You can stand her...' he said to himself, sitting against a wall, and taking a knife out, with which he began to play, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes.

_

* * *

(Chapter 4 written by Chrissy.W.x, Belén and charmedfreak)_


	5. Chapter 5

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 5**

Piper gasped: "What??" She looked at Chris, her Chris, and shook her head: "No way, young man. It's enough with you in danger. We don't need to risk him too... No way."  
"But mom!" both Chrises exclaimed at the same time making the others in the room startle.  
"And you say you're not him..." Wyatt mumbled.  
But Christopher heard him: "Wyatt, I am NOT! But that doesn't mean that we are not equally brave and clever."  
Paige and Bianca chuckled, and Leo and Chris raised an eyebrow.  
"Well... I didn't say that," the Elder-witch said, rising his hands defensively.  
Michael put a hand on his friend's shoulder: "I can't let you do that, Chris. They're right... I don't wanna risk you, and even less your little self."  
Christopher stared at him angrily, but Wyatt glared at his little brother making him keep silent.  
It was Chris that talked: "At least listen to what I have to say..." He made a pause, in which all the others sighed and gestured, making him know he could talk. "Ok... Yes, that was my idea. And it seems that it was Christopher's too. I'm not gonna risk him at all, believe me. I'll be there. And Wyatt too. We only need time. He'll probably believe it is me and take him away."  
"Powerless?" Piper asked with a sarcastic laugh. Chris and Christopher looked at each other, but didn't answer.  
"He'll release Angy... and we'll have the ground prepared to attack him."  
"Powerless..." Paige sighed. "That's too risky."  
"I will be there. I have to take my little brother safe and sound to the future. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to him," Wyatt said.  
Chris nodded: "We won't let anything happen to him."  
Christopher rolled his eyes. But Leo was pensive. He wasn't sure that it was a good idea. He came from the future. He might be interfering too much... Wyatt was there with Chris's consent, but Christopher had come on his own. That wasn't good at all.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve had just cried for a long time, he had cried his eyes out. Now it seemed to him that there were no tears left and slowly he began to calm down a little.  
Nicki caressed his hair, whispering comforting words to his ear under her own quiet sobs. Her shirt was already wet from his tears, but she didn't mind. It was what he needed now, what they both needed.  
"I'm so sorry, that I hurt you," he whispered suddenly.  
Nicki stopped the move of her hand. She felt like her heart broke a little when she heard the guilt in his voice. He shouldn't feel like that. "That wasn't you," she said, with a voice as strong as possible, and kissed his head.  
He sighed: "I know... but still somehow it was me..."  
She smiled weakly: "You will maybe never forget that honey... but believe me, those images will fade away until there is nothing more left than a pale shadow."  
Steve closed his eyes, when another tear fought his way down his cheek. 'How could she be so kind to me after all I have done,' he thought. Again he looked at her. There was no hate in her eyes, no anger... just some worries and deep and endless love.  
"I love you so much... so much..." he said and again broke down crying. He threw himself to her arms, burying his face in her chest and cried again so desperately.  
"It was so cold... so dark..." he muttered then under his sobs. "Dark and cold... I couldn't see anything..."  
Nicki felt so helpless, her heart was breaking again, when her friend started to shiver in her arms.  
There was a fight inside Steve's soul. One half of him told him that he just should shut up, because telling, even thinking about all that, hurt so much. But the other half knew that Tom was right, that he needed to talk. And finally that half of him won.  
"I know I was walking down that road. And I felt something... it wasn't even a pain, it was just something," he said slowly. "The next thing I know is that I woke up at that dark cold place... I felt so alone." Again he cried a little more. Nicki hold him as close as possible, trying to make him feel save with her.  
"I thought you would came," Steve went on, "but then a demon came... He said he had taken my blood to distract you... and I knew it was true because I felt the pain in my hand where he had cut me..." Nicki now felt her eyes welling up with tears on her own, when he said again that he had felt so alone.  
"From time to time some demon came... to beat me... to cut me with their weapons... to hurt me... to..." his voice broke.  
Nicki couldn't held back the tears any longer. She was glad that Steve finally opened up to her... but hearing all those things made her suffer with him. And she knew there was more to come, more things he needed to tell... He had gone through so much, too much for one person... far too much.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole hadn't closed his eyes again, after Chris was gone, he was afraid to do so. Instead he just kept looking at the ceiling.  
"What are you thinking about?" Phoebe asked.  
"My dreams, " he answered.  
His wife sighed: "Well... I thought you'd agreed that we forget this..."  
"But what if it is a kind of magical power...???"  
Phoebe smiled: "Not every thing that's mysterious has to do with magic... Dreams are coming from our subconscious... Maybe you're just afraid of losing us..."  
Cole chuckled: "Yeah... that's possible... Maybe that's all because I still can't believe that all this is real... The last year had been so amazing..."  
"Yeah I know," his wife answered smiling and gave him a kiss on his cheek.  
"Yeah... but what if I wake up and find out that all this is just a dream?" he said then with a serious voice.  
Phoebe grinned and slapped him on his chest.  
"Outch!" he said looking at her frowning.  
"See..." the empath said smiling, "no dream!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael sat in the kitchen while Paige tried her best to prepare something to eat. Actually she wasn't good at that but she knew it was better to let the others discuss their problems about the timetravel and Angela alone... She and Michael couldn't help at that point anyway.  
"What do you think about some scrambled eggs?" He smiled weakly.  
"Hey," Paige said, "I know that's a difficult situation, but... you know Chris will not let you down, and it seems Wyatt also cares a lot... So don't worry, they will find a way."  
"I know," he said, "I just wish I could help..."  
At that moment Paige's mobile phone rang. "Excuse me a second," she said to Michael before she picked it up, "Yeah?"  
"Hey Paige, here's Kyle... just wanted to hear if you got home save...?"  
"Kyle," she said smiling, "you brought me to the door... so..."  
"Well... it had been about five meters and some steps to your door..."  
Paige smiled. "Thanks I'm fine," she said then with a shy voice. "But... I'm sorry, I can't talk to you now... I mean... We have some things to deal with... and... I guess you should chase some thieves, too."  
"Things?" Kyle asked. "THOSE things?"  
"Yes," Paige admitted after a moment of hesitating.  
For a moment Kyle kept silent, then he said: "Ok, so I will call you tomorrow? Or... better you call me, ok?"  
She sighed relieved about that kind of reaction: "Ok, I promise I call you as soon as we finished dealing with THOSE things... Bye." Then she ended the call.  
"Kyle?" Michael asked. "That officer?" Paige nodded. "So he knows?"  
"Since a few days..." the witch-whitelighter answered.  
Michael nodded: "Dou you like him? I mean..."  
Paige grinned: "Maybe..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"But dad, why should I not do that?" Christopher said. "Why shouldn't I help when I'm here already..."  
"Because you could mess up the time... and you could do it even more worse that I did," Wyatt snapped back at his little brother.  
All eyes of the others turned at the twice blessed surprised.  
"You did?" Chris asked. "What did you do?"  
Wyatt sighed: "Nicki, Steve and Tom..."  
"What did you do about them?" Piper asked confused.  
Her son shrugged: "Nothing... I even didn't know them before I came to the past... But when I came back they had turned to be close friends of the family."  
"Because we both had been caught instead of Cole... that changed everything, right?" Chris asked.  
Wyatt nodded: "Not that you ever complained when I came back... But that taught me to be careful." The others nodded.  
Suddenly again bluish orbing lights filled the room.  
"Uncle Odin!" Christopher exclaimed smiling. He went over to the Elder and hugged him, ignoring the completely puzzled looks of the rest of the family - except Wyatt.

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor was taking a look on Julian's computers, while the colored witch paced the room nervously.  
"We should have told him."  
"You DID tell him too much," Belthazor said, shaking his head.  
"But do you really feel that way?" Julian asked, stopping by the side of his friend and staring at his back.  
The red demon sighed: "Yeah. I feel that's the way things must be done, Julian. We are here to keep the balance stable. We have helped Chris all this time, but now that Cristóbal has reappeared, I'm wondering if that was the right thing to do."  
"Belthazor..." Julian tried to intervene.  
But he went on: "No... listen to me. I've read about genetic twins. We're supposed to have one, at least, but with 23 years of difference in the middle. Cristóbal is the genetic twin of the new-born Chris. And Chris will have another genetic twin in 23 years. But two twins of the same age..." He shook his head. "And we both know perfectly well who's the one that does not fit."  
"I'm not so sure..." Julian insisted. "Wyatt came from the future, from a future where his brother lives, and probably Cristóbal is dead. That's the right future we're making!"  
Belthazor turned to look at him and said tiredly: "If that's true, let it be... But not with our help. We need to keep the balance, even that genetic balance."  
Julian shook his head unbelievingly. "We have helped them all this time..."  
"But this Wyatt is asking us now to help them. He comes from the future, don't you understand? If we help HIM, or do as HE wants, we might be changing something..."  
"He came last time too!! We must have changed something already, come on..."  
Belthazor was really helpless. He didn't know what to do. He had never felt like that... "I'm sorry..." he muttered. "That time he came with Chris, and Chris himself would have come."  
"Maybe this time too... We don't know."  
"That's why. That's why we must let it be." Belthazor was stubborn.  
"What if we actually helped them for this Wyatt's future? What if we don't do it now? Then we could change something." Julian couldn't believe his friend did not really want to help them. They had already talked about it before Wyatt came. They knew what was going on out there... But he had a bad feeling.  
Belthazor just sighed and turned around again to face the computer. He didn't feel like arguing anymore...  
But Julian went on after a pause: "Tell me one thing, Belthazor... Is this what you really feel? Do you only want to keep that balance? Because I think you wanna help him. You wanna help Chris."  
Belthazor shuddered a little bit, but didn't turn round.

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin freed himself and looked at that young man confused. "Uncle?" he asked.  
"Never mind Odin, future consequences..." Wyatt said before Christopher could answer something.  
Odin narrowed his eyes: "Wyatt?"  
The blonde witch nodded smiling: "Yepp... nice to meet you, too."  
"Well... actually I guess I have already an explanation for that," Leo said kind of shyly.  
Piper and Chris looked at him expectantly, while Odin voiced a questioning "So?"  
"Yeah, actually..." Leo hesitated, "I thought about the possible godfathers for baby-Chris, because we still haven't chosen someone..."  
"You thought about him?" Piper asked pointing at Odin, not believing her ears. After all that had happened, how could he think about him, an Elder?  
"Why not?" Chris said shrugging.  
"Because..." Piper didn't know what to say. It was just weird and she really wasn't sure if she would like that idea.  
Wyatt sighed: "Whatever... there are more important things to discuss."  
"Yeah," Odin nodded, "that's why I'm here... We decided to help Michael... Not because of you, but because we had giving him and the others up, twenty years ago... Now it's time to pay off old scores."  
"So you had talked to the council?" Leo asked surprised.  
Odin shook his head: "No.. 'we', that is Silas, Andrew, Lyta, Yuri, Gabriel and me."  
"Thanks," Michael said. He and Paige had re-entered that moment.  
"Never mind," Odin replied looking at the man surprised. He had not expected him to be there... but still it was logical to be with the family.  
There was a moment of silence. No one knew what to do or to say at that point. Suddenly Christopher couldn't help yawning.  
Paige looked at her watch: "I guess we all could need a rest, it's close to midnight already."  
Chris glanced at the huge clock. He hadn't noticed how fast the time had gone by. Then he nodded.  
"If you like, I could take the kids with me up there, so that you can have a night without disturbing," Odin offered.  
"NO!" Piper and Bianca exclaimed at the same time. But when she saw his surprisingly hurt look, the Phoenix added: "But if you like, you can stay with us and watch over them."

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela leaned against the stony wall, hugging her knees shivering. Meanwhile Cris was pacing in front of her, still playing with his knife.  
"I can't understand that you fear me," he said suddenly. "I wasn't the one who lied to you, who stole your life... I was the one who gave you your memories back... and you still fear me."  
"You've kidnapped me," she replied in a whisper.  
Cris grinned: "I'm sorry, but you're the perfect bait. You're fucking little husband is surly now crying on Chris's shoulder begging him for help... and tomorrow at that time, Chris will be here, because he loves to play the hero... and then..." He stopped and chuckled.  
"You will kill him..." Angela said slowly  
"Oh... don't use such words sugarbaby," he said playfully, "I just want what is already mine... This is my time, my life..."  
After that followed a while of silence. Then Angela heard a voice calling for Cristóbal.  
"Excuse me," he said to her; "and don't run away." Then he left the cave by shimmering.  
'Could that be? Could Chris had stolen his life?' she thought, when she was alone again. She couldn't believe it... but still...  
She shook her head: 'He had also lied about Mike, it couldn't be that he knows... So this has to be a lie, too.'  
She thought about her husband... about how he said he became a friend of Chris. That weird story with the accident. And then... her new old memories.  
She thought about how she saw Chris for the first time, the real first time. He was with her husband and another person at that carrousel, talking, while she was chained and in the hands of that clown. He used her to make Chris do what he wanted, she remembered. But more important, Michael seemed to trust Chris at that point. She had seen them talking, before they noticed that she was there... They had been talking like close friends.  
She remembered that altar, and Chris on it, and that she was put into a small cage... And Michael? He kept telling her that everything would be alright... that they would go out of this. 'He believed in Chris,' she thought.  
She remembered that she had asked Michael about Chris. "Someone who could help us, hopefully," he had answered... 'Chris must have told him something,' her mind started to spin.  
And she remembered how Michael had send her out after she had kind of dissolved in light and got out of that cage this way... She felt dizzy when she thought about that feeling. Michael had told her to leave, while he wanted to help Chris... 'He wanted to help him...'  
And then she remembered, when she saw Michael again, he was hurt badly... and there was this man, he had came with Bianca, who helped him with a golden light... And yes... Bianca was also there... 'She's also one of them,' Angela thought. And Michael had came to her, or better was brought to her by that young man who had appeared from nowhere... somehow the same way like that Cris who had imprisoned her had just disappeared... 'Was that something evil, was that man evil? But he was a friend of Chris...' she thought getting more confused. She remembered that Michael knew that she was Chris wife... and she knew she was bearing a daughter. He knew so much about them... 'He knew everything...' she thought, 'and when they visited us a few weeks ago... Mike and Chris they had been so close'. "Oh my God... He still knows," she said under some sobs. Then she broke down crying. He had lied to her, he had known it the whole time.

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael was in the kitchen, trying to find something to drink, when a familiar face appeared through the door.  
"Hey Chris," he said. "it's good that you're here and we can talk in private." He had been put into one room with Christopher and Wyatt so he hadn't the chance to say to Chris what he wanted to say. "I really don't want you to do that... And... Maybe it had been better if we wouldn't be that close... I mean, it's not the first time, that someone uses Angry to control you." His voice was sad, but strong and determined. "Maybe it's better, when this is all over, when we stop meeting... I mean, it would be safer for both of us... Not that I don't want to see you anymore but... I can't live with the fear that something could happen to Angy... or to you, just because of me."  
He looked at Chris waiting for an reaction, but the young man just looked at him for a while. Then he grinned. "Oh man... you should thank God that you talked to the wrong person, because I guess Chris would be really hurt by that..."  
Michael frowned: "Christopher?" And when the other one nodded, he added: "Oh God... I'm such an idiot."  
Christopher smiled at him: "No, you're not... But believe me, trying to run away from the family, will not help you... I know how much Chris means to you, and how much you mean to him... and I don't want to start about myself or Wyatt... 'Uncle Mickey'."  
Michael couldn't help chuckling a little but still he wasn't sure about all this.  
Christopher went over to him and hugged him: "You are a part of this family, want it or not... We're always there for you, and for Angy... we will always protect you, also this time! And believe me, there are so many great things waiting for you..."  
Michael nodded: "Thanks!"  
"Don't worry about that... Uncle Mickey..." the witch-Elder said, took him by the hand and orbed with him back to their room.

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper and Bianca were in the nursery, breast-feeding their babies. Odin was also there, but he was a little uncomfortable with it. Piper and Bianca were talking about 'normal' stuff, trying to relax from this day. But still, they couldn't escape things completely.  
"I hope everything is gonna be okay, with Chris and Christopher." Piper sighed. She was getting used to having two Chrises around.  
Bianca looked at Hope, she was done. Bianca got her off, now Odin was really uncomfortable, he looked to the other side of the room with his hand in front of his eyes.  
Bianca saw him and started to laugh: "You really have to get used to this kind of stuff." She gave Hope to him with a smile. "Just as this," she added.  
Odin took the baby and smiled too. Piper looked at him, at first a little mad, but then she also started to smile. Odin loved to have a baby in his hands, you could see it at his expression. But then he looked kinda weird, he was thinking. Finally he said: "Piper, isn't it weird to change Chris's diapers?" Bianca chuckled and laughed, it was actually pretty weird, now she was thinking about it. Her husband's diapers.  
But Piper answered serious: "Well, not really. I mean, it's not Chris, it's Christopher." But then she also started to laugh.

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela cried. She couldn't believe her husband lied to her, it couldn't be! She remembered something again, but she didn't want to. She wanted those pictures to stop.  
Then, she had an idea. And that idea turned into an explanation, she gave herself. Maybe that Cristóbal had a power... with that power he could place weird memories in her head, maybe it isn't true. 'It has to be like that,' she thought, 'it has to.'  
She didn't knew anything, except that her husband loved her. She was sure of that.  
Then slowly she closed her red eyes, and fell into a slight sleep.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Sometimes in the future:  
_Chris went through the magic school: "Matthew?" he called, when he looked into the library. But there was no sign of him. So he went to the laboratories...  
"Matthew? he asked again, when he had entered the lab for the classes in potion-making. Again there was no response, but he could feel the boy. Chris sighed and couldn't help grinning. Then he turned serious again and called: "Matthew Wyatt Halliwell, get your ass here or I will become really angry!"  
Seconds later the 13-year old boy turned visible in front of him. "Wow," he said grinning, "if mom would know how you talk to me, she would ground you!"  
"Yeah... but she doesn't... and I'm not going to tell her... same as you..." Chris answered.  
"Why should I not?"  
"Because you don't want me to tell her that I found you in this laboratory practising with invisible-potions which are meant for kids who are a lot older than you... Do you?"  
The boy looked down: "No, please don't tell her..."  
Chris grinned: "Of course not... I'm not crazy... and I guess it would kill her to know that you're so much like me..." He winked at Matthew who grinned proudly about that comment.  
"So... what's wrong that you came here to search for me... I mean it isn't six o'clock so I can't be too late and also - as far as I know - I didn't messed up any..."  
"Matthew! Stop it..." Chris said chuckling. Then he turned serious: "We have a little problem at home... I want you to be there with us. And maybe we'll need your help."  
"My help?" the boy asked surprised. He was practising his powers as often as possible, but he knew he wasn't that good like the others at the manor... So in which way could they need his help?  
"I'll explain you later, now we need to go home, ok?" The boy nodded and the Elder-witch took his hand to orb with him back to the manor.  
But before they could start doing that, Chris began to feel dizzy again. He hold his head trying to stop the confusion which was overwhelming him.  
Meanwhile the boy looked at him scared. Then he took the man's hand again and brought them back to the manor on his own.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Back in our time:_  
Steve was still lying in his bed, his head on Nicki's lap now. He had stopped crying for a while and closed his eyes. But Nicki knew he wasn't sleeping. She kept caressing his hair and cheek. There was nothing more she could do.  
When the sun went down and everything in the room turned dark, Steve had started to shiver again. So Nicki had turn on the lights which had made him calm down. Steve had never feared the darkness before... But after all what he had told her today, she could understand why he did it now...  
She watched him now and sighed, trying not to start sobbing again. Then she gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I love you so much," she whispered.  
First there was no reaction, then Steve mumbled: "I know... I love you too."  
Nicki felt again some tears rolling down her cheeks, but she wouldn't cry now... she had to be strong now, for him.  
"I'm sorry," he said after a while, "I'm sorry that I hurt you, when I wasn't myself... and that I'm now hurting you, too."  
"Baby, don't talk like that," she whispered. "How often shall I tell you that?"  
Steve sighed, then he turned around to face her. His eyes were terrified. "I'm scared," he said slowly, "I'm so scared..."  
Nicki closed her glassy eyes for a moment. Then she hugged him close and said: "I know honey... and I'm so sorry that I can't take that away from you."  
"Nicki, tell me... how can I go on... with that fear inside me, how can I go on?" he said and started to cry again.  
"Shhhhh," she said trying to calm him down, "baby, you will go on, and you will overcome that fear, I promise. We will all help you... We will not let you down."  
"But what if I can't," he sobbed, "what if I can't?"  
Nicki sighed. She didn't know what to answer. So she just hugged him and kissed his cheek.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Look, if you want to help them, just do it!" Julian said a little angry. He was still discussing with his friend... since a couple of hours already.  
"Stop it!!" Belthazor screamed. "It's not about wanting... it's about doing what's right." His voice was suddenly soft, but he didn't want to show any emotions... a demons with a soft side... that was impossible. So he turned to being tough again. "And don't say I care about them, they're just witches."  
"No, they're not! They're the Charmed Ones, and, well, the Charmed Sons and their family." Julian said a little confused. "Anyway, they're very strong... that's a fact... But what if they fail because we didn't help them...?? Everything here could turn into hell, with a demon on the throne - and I'm not talking about you... We can't let that happen."  
"Nice speech." And it worked... Of course Belthazor didn't want that bastard of demon sitting on his thrown. He nodded with a sigh: "You're right, we have to help them." He knew this was going to be a tough fight.

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom and Veronica had been very cautious not to get caught by anyone. They had been wandering around the Underworld for hours, now it was already far beyond midnight. Veronica was a little bit scared, but Tom was completely determined. He needed to find that bastard that had done that to his friend. He really needed to.  
'Thanks God,' Veronica thought to herself, 'Tom can shimmer, and if things get worse, he can freeze anyone that has discovered us.' But as much as they had walked, their mission had been fruitless.  
"Come on, Tommy... let's go back home. We should not be here, and you know it...And I'm really getting tired, you know?"  
Tom shook his head and went on walking stubbornly. Caves with moisture, nature around... That didn't belong to the Underworld. Where the hell hid that demon?  
Tom had tortured and frozen a couple of lower-level demons on his search, to get information out of them, but the funny thing was that no one seemed to have any idea of what they were talking about. No one there remembered any story similar to Steve's, and some demons really seemed willing to stay alive.  
"Tom, what if it is not a demon...?" she asked.  
"It is a demon. I promise. And someone must know the..."  
Suddenly he heard something. A moan. He indicated Veronica that she should not talk. He listened attentively and felt there was a woman crying.  
"Oh, my... Is that a human being? Or a witch?"  
"No idea..." Tom said, following the direction of the moans. The sound was nearer... Finally he saw a little entrance, almost a simple hole, to a cave, a possible lair. He peeped trying to keep himself hidden.  
"Be careful, Tom..." Veronica whispered, starting to worry a lot. "That's not a good idea..."  
"Shhh..." he looked inside. There was a woman crying... a woman he knew very well. He went paler. "Angela? This cannot..."  
"Who's there? Chris? Or whatever your name is..." she said, shivering uncontrollably.  
Tom froze, feeling himself discovered. He looked at Veronica, who didn't know what to do, and finally he ventured. "Is there someone else with you?" he asked.  
Angela kept silent. What if that was another strange creature like that fake Chris?  
Therefore, Tom decided to enter, in spite of Veronica's complaints.  
"You?" the woman said, standing up and pressing her body against a wall, scared. "You too... you are..."  
Tom sighed: "It's ok, we're the good ones... What happened?"  
Angela was so scared that she wasn't able to talk, but finally she started to explain roughly the whole story in just a few words.  
Tom grabbed her hand to shimmer with her: "Ok, you'll let us know later... Now we need to..." But an energy ball hit his back, and he fell on the floor. Veronica cried and ran to him, as Angela stumbled back.  
"What are you witches doing here?!" a furious Cristóbal cried, preparing another ball.  
Veronica begged Tom to shimmer away. The boy was in so much pain, but he wanted Angela to give him her hand again. They had to take her out of that hell. "Girl!! Give me your hand, come here, for God's sake!"  
Angela was so freaked out that instead of approaching them, she stepped backwards. Cris threw another energy ball towards Tom...  
"Shimmer right now, dammit!" Veronica exclaimed. He did, allowing the ball pass above through the waves he had provoked by doing so.  
"SHIT!!" Cris yelled. Merciless he grasped Angela's arm, and said: "This is not a good place to keep you anymore." Then he shimmered with her away.

_

* * *

(Chapter 5 written by Belén, Chrissy.W.x and charmedfreak)_


	6. Chapter 6

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 6**

Phoebe turned around in the comfortable fluffy bed of the hotel, and in her dreams, she stretched her arm to embrace Cole, but it fell on the bed with a muffled thud. All of a sudden she awoke to reality, and opened her eyes widely: Cole wasn't there and panic ran through her whole body.  
"Cole?" she said, getting into a sitting position and looking at both of her sides. Nothing. "Cole?!" she called louder, starting to freak out. What the hell? Had he changed his mind? Was he suddenly scared of what they had done, and had escaped? What if those nightmares had made him make up his mind about his life as a witch?  
None of that could be true, she knew that because they knew part of the future; that important part according to which Cole's was Chris's second father and all. But on the other hand...they had changed so much... At that very moment, Phoebe's mind was unable to focus anyway. She jumped out of her bed: "COLE!"  
What if some demon had found them? What if there was still some demon after Cole, for considering him a traitor? What if... something bad had happened?  
Then she noticed a soft breeze and turned her head to the short corridor. It led to the little lounge of the suite, and this to a balcony which was open. Phoebe sighed relieved, until new bad feelings assaulted her. What if he had jumped? But why? She shook her head; that was the most stupid thought that could have crossed her mind.  
She rushed to the balcony and pulled the heavy curtains apart... and there he was. She took a deep breath and stepped out to him. Then,  
Cole turned to face her, surprised. "Honey..." he looked at her from head to toe, realising that she was only in her night-gown. He went to her and wrapped her in her arms: "What are you doing here? You're gonna freeze..."  
It was still dark outside, the moon shone in the sky, but in a few hours it would start to get light. Phoebe shivered between his strong arms: "That's what I was going to ask... What the hell are you doing here? Do you have an idea of how much you spooked me??"  
Cole smiled, and caressed her hair tenderly: "I couldn't sleep anymore... I needed to think a little bit and this was the perfect place."  
"Think about what, Cole...?" Phoebe asked tiredly, still between his arms.  
"About everything. My whole life... Including our future."  
Phoebe raised her eyes to meet his smile. "What do you mean by that?"  
"What was I gonna mean, Phoebe? I've never been so happy before. Actually, I was never happy... But now all the pain makes sense, somehow. It led to this... to you. And to a wonderful future."  
Phoebe could not help chuckling and smiling. "And you needed to be alone to think about that?" she asked, amused.  
Cole nodded: "All good moments deserve some minutes of reflection..."  
"Have you already decided something about our future?" she asked, pushing him against the wall, and kissing him lovingly on his lips.  
Cole embraced her as they kissed each other, and between kiss and kiss, he answered: "I was... thinking... about... the... names of... the kids... you know."  
Phoebe separated herself from him, and looked him in the eyes: "The kids? You really mean several?"  
"I love kids, sweetie... I've discovered that thanks to Chris and Wyatt... We'll have tons of them running between our legs."  
Phoebe chuckled again, and kissed him as she said: "And you'll be the wonderful daddy who's gonna clean their little butts when the get dirty, and their little mouths when they throw away, and the wonderful daddy who will spend night after night trying to make them sleep, and..."  
Cole turned pale: "I thought we could share the tough part of the job."  
Phoebe laughed and kissed him again. He wrapped her in his arms, and they kept that way, under the brilliant moon in the starry sky, ignoring the chill that threatened with causing a cold to them.  
As Cole kissed her, he could not stop thinking about the true reason why he had gone out there... His weird nightmares. But these feelings kept hidden for the empath by the love that Cole was emanating at that moment.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, the night had went on as calm as possible in the manor. None of their inhabitants got to sleep deeply, but some of them could not stay awake since they were really tired. Michael himself, even if he was so worried, had finally fallen asleep.  
Only Chris had awoken in the middle of the night, unable to stay in bed, and had gone to the attic, to take a look at the book, while he reorganised his ideas and gave shape to his plan. Time was coming, and they had to save Angela...  
At a determined moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and for a moment he thought it was Wyatt. He turned around to find out that it was Christopher, actually.  
"Hey... Maxi-mm... Chris. Chris, man... you need to sleep. You have to learn that lesson for the future."  
Chris frowned: "What do you mean?" He had been sleeping well for quite a long time, that was the first time in ages that he had going back to his wandering because of his worries...  
"I mean that. You are always worried. I mean, not always. But when you are you do this, and this is not good."  
Chris lowered his eyes: "I guess your life is healthier than mine."  
"I learnt from your faults!" he grinned. Then he turned serious: "Ok... I just came to see if you were here. You were not in your room, I was scared."  
Chris smiled. But then he turned serious again. "Wait... Can I ask you something?" he said. Christopher nodded. "It seems to me that... well, what I wanna ask is... Why do you hate me so much?"  
This time, Christopher was caught by surprise: "Hate you?" He opened his eyes widely. "I don't hate you, not at all!"  
Chris sighed: "You got mad whenever they compared you with me, and all that stuff of the name... You said we are not the same person..."  
Christopher rolled his eyes, and went to him: "Because that is true. We are not the same. If we were, you would not be asking why I hate you. You'd simply know that I don't, because you would be me, and I you." He shook his head. "It's only that they keep thinking that I am YOU. I need to be ME, don't you see it? Not YOU. Sometimes I have the impression that I am a mistake. That you are the one supposed to be for them. I am only the funny young Chris whose life was perfect and..."  
Chris smiled weakly: "Your life was perfect?"  
Christopher nodded: "Yes, it was, and I owe you that... But that is why I am not you. That is why we are different people... I just need them not to believe that I will be like you, you know what I mean??" Chris stared at him, as he tried to explain himself. "I mean... every parent tells its sons and daughters 'You should be like this or that, look at your older brother... blablahblah', but my case is worst. They tell me 'You are not like that, look at your older version, he'd never do this and that, when he was your age he did this, and blah blah.'  
He took a deep breath, as Chris chuckled, and hugged him: "You do really hate me..."  
"No, I don't..." He sighed. "I love you. I Do love you so much, brother... I just want to be myself, to have my own identity..."  
Chris smiled again, as he pressed his 'brother' against his chest: "I think we can fix that... Christopher."  
"What a wonderful scene..." Wyatt was clasping his hands at the door, smiling. Precious... The three brothers started to laugh, and talk, and laugh, and relax... and finally they fell asleep in the attic.

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin was sitting in the nursery next to the bed of little Christopher. He leaned on the bars of the bed and observed the cute boy smiling. He was so small and vulnerable.  
Then Odin took a glance at Hope. She was sleeping like her... like her uncle. 'Yeah, that's the best way, to see it... like they are brothers,' Odin thought, thinking about the two Chrises. Genetically the same, but still so different.  
Then he looked at Wyatt who was also sleeping soundly. Odin smiled and shook his head. Five hours with those kids... really being with them... and he already loved them.  
A few moments later bluish orbing lights filled the room. "Odin what are you do..."  
"Shhhhhhhh..." Odin interrupted Silas who had just materialised, "you're going to wake them up."  
Silas sighed: "But what are you doing here?"  
Odin looked back at little Christopher smiling. "Babysitting," he answered.  
"What?" exclaimed his friend as quiet as possible. "Up there everything turns to be a great mess and you're babysitting?"  
Odin sighed and explained: "Half an hour ago, little Christopher was awake... he was hungry. Piper had prepared some milk for the kids so that I could feed them if necessary..." He made a break shaking his head. Then he went on: "Holding that small boy and watching him drinking... that was overwhelming, Silas... I think that was the first time, I really understood for which reason we're existing... we have to keep the world safe for those little wonders... for them and all the other kids in the world..."  
Silas shook his head while he watched his friend. "Meeting at 9 o'clock," he said, then he orbed away.  
Odin just nodded absent, his eyes still focused on the small boy.  
Piper stood behind the nearly closed door. Without being noticed by them, she had watched the scene between the Elders through the small gap.  
She smiled. 'Maybe he isn't such a bad choice for the godfather of my baby,' she thought. Then she went back to her room, lay down and cuddled up into Leo's arms.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris jumped up startled when he felt someone shimmering in. He was awake within a second, ready to defend himself. But it wasn't a demon. "Tom!" he exclaimed, when he saw his friend wounded.  
Meanwhile Wyatt opened his eyes slowly, trying to look around. He noticed Tom and Veronica in the middle of the attic, and Chris was about to start healing the young man. Wyatt sighed and was about to close his eyes again, when he saw how Tom took Chris's hand and shimmered with him away, before the Elder-witch had a chance to react..  
Within a second Wyatt was completely awake and jumped up. "Where are they gone?" he yelled at Veronica.  
The woman frowned: "Who are you?"  
The twice blessed looked at her confused, then he remembered that they had never met in the past before. So he introduced himself: "I'm Chris's brother, Wyatt... So where are they gone?"  
Now Veronica was the one confused. Even if Tom had told her about the adult version of the 2-years-old boy she knew... She was about to say something, when she saw Christopher on the sofa, who was still sleeping. "W-W-What's going on here?" she asked kind of absent. Her mind was starting to spin...  
Wyatt took her hands and forced her to look into his eyes: "Where is Chris?"  
Suddenly afraid of him, Veronica tried to flinch, but he hold her tight waiting for an answer. "I... I guess they are trying to help Michael's wife..." she said with fear in her voice.  
"WHAT?" Wyatt exclaimed. But before he could sense his brother and follow him, they orbed back to the attic.  
As soon as Chris and Tom materialised, the latter collapsed and fall down to the floor.  
"What happened?" Wyatt and Veronica asked at the same time, while Chris started to heal him, finally.  
"Nothing," the Elder-witch said sadly, "they were already gone."  
"DAMNED!" Wyatt cursed. He went over to the wall and punched it with his fist.  
"Hey!" Chris yelled. "That isn't helping!" Meanwhile he had finished the healing.  
Veronica, who had sat down next to Tom, hugged him. Both were startled by Wyatt's outburst. Tom didn't know him very well, even if he owed him his life, but he had never thought that Wyatt could act like that.  
"But it's the life of my girl that is at the stake here!" the blonde man kept on yelling, while Christopher started to wake up too, because of all those noises.  
Chris went over to his brother and grabbed him by his shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "I know," he said with a calm voice, "that's why we need you to cool down... you're not helping when your freaking out... but we need your help... she needs it... So don't lose it brother, ok?"  
Wyatt nodded, his eyes turning watery. "It's just... I love her so much Chris... and if she would be erased from the..."  
The Elder-witch sighed and pulled his brother into a tight hug. "That will not happen, brother," he said, "I promise."  
Meanwhile Tom and Veronica had stood up and were observing the still sleepy Christopher, who was rubbing his eyes tiredly.  
"Ok, Chris" Tom said with a kind of shaky voice and without taking his eyes from that 'twin' of his friend, "could you explain that to me please? And then I have some more bad news for you..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Cris had pushed Angela into a small cage. Then he had left her again without any other comment. Now she was alone again. She was freezing.  
The cage she was in, was completely empty, except of herself. And the cave was as empty as the cage. It was dark, nevertheless she could still see some of the things around her... but not much.  
Still Angela felt nothing but fear. She sat down, leaning against the bars and hugging her knees.  
'That can't be true,' she thought, 'that must be a really bad nightmare...'  
Then her mind turned back to the young man... Was he trying to help her? She wasn't sure... And the way he disappeared... that was the same way like that false Chris had done it...  
'How did they do that?' she thought.  
That young man... she knew him... she knew him from her memories. 'If he is real... than my memories are also real...' "Oh God... he knew... Michael knew everything..." she sobbed and then she broke down crying again.

°°°°°°°°°°

Julian was happy. Somehow. He knew that Belthazor had always wanted to help them, in the bottom of his fiendish heart, but reason told him constantly that he was a demon, that he shouldn't help a witch. Then his heart, pretending to be his reason, said that it wasn't because he liked them; just because he had to keep the tip of the balance stable.  
But Julian knew Belthazor. He knew him very well. Therefore, he knew what he really wanted, or at least what he did not want, and he did not want to let this Chris die. There was no reason for that. Just his heart.  
And now, he, Julian, had to talk with Chris and Wyatt, and tell them what they really knew about Cris.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki had fallen asleep by Steve's shaking body. Even if the lights were on, and she was so bad to sleep with light, she was so tired that she had finally fallen.  
Steve, however, was not able to get to sleep. He kept his eyes wide open as he stared at her, with pity and fear. He would not overcome that. He would have to live with that... or die before. He was not so strong as to face that terror all his life... He wasn't that strong or brave...  
Tears wet his face while he kept watching his love. That was so cowardly... What he was thinking... Nicki would never forgive him, not even after dead. He had to do it for her, if not for himself... And for Tom, he had promised that. Suddenly an idea struck his mind, and his heart leapt.  
At that moment Nicki started to wake up and yawned. "Hey..." she smiled sadly. "Did you get to sleep?" She stroked his hair.  
Steve shook his head: "Nicki..."  
"Yeah?" she frowned, sitting on the bed, as she saw his determined expression.  
"I want you to erase my memories."  
"What? No way, Steve... And you know I can't do that."  
"You can... You can steal some Elder-dust from Leo, or Chris... Or even John... Please..." he begged.  
Nicki shook her head: "No... You can't ask me that, Steve. I don't wanna do that. What if I erase more than we should? I could even lose you... No..."  
"Nicki, please..." he sobbed, "I can't... I won't be able to go on living with those nightmares. I need you to do that for me..."  
Nicki stared at him anxious and hesitant. She loved him so much... She couldn't deny him anything. She just couldn't, but that... That was too much. And his eyes went through hers unmercifully.

°°°°°°°°°°

"So this is Chris..." Tom tired to understand.  
"Christopher," the young future Halliwell corrected.  
"Christopher. That is Chris, actually. From the future, and..."  
"No. I'm Christopher, just that. He is Chris from this time, and in my time, I still have this Chris, therefore, I am Christopher, and he is Chris," he explained exasperated, before the amused smiles of the others.  
Tom sighed: "Ok... Christopher from the future... And we have this other Chris, our Chris..." Chris nodded.  
"And Wyatt... From the future too," continued Tom, turning to look at Wyatt, who also nodded, with his arms folded in front of his chest.  
"And then... there's another twin, Cris... Cristóbal... That demon that we thought we'd already vanquished."  
"Actually he escaped," Chris clarified.  
"But he was powerless." All the three Halliwells nodded, and Tom turned to Veronica: "This is gonna be tough..."  
"Ok... But we have more to worry about," Wyatt said, unfolding his arms. "Michael must be still asleep, and mom, dad and Bianca... But I think we should start doing something."  
"At least we've got something... I mean, we know where he was hiding Angela... Maybe we can get something out of that," Chris intervened. "We'll have to keep to the original plan..." He stared at Christopher, who smiled.  
"And I'll be really happy to help with that," he said.  
Wyatt nodded: "Remember he wants you powerless. I mean, Chris, but..."  
"I know," his little brother said determined. "But I'll do it anyway. You don't need to protect me all the time, Wyatt. I know what I do... believe me or not."  
Chris smiled, realising what a good brother Wyatt must have been for his little self, and how much he had missed that... and also what Wyatt meant when he had talked to him about that too.  
Suddenly, Julian shimmered in the attic, making all of them startle.  
"Julian!" Wyatt exclaimed, surprised of seeing him there. The colored witch grinned.

°°°°°°°°°°

Around half past six Piper entered the nursery. Odin had little Christopher in his arms caressing his cheek. "You're such a cute boy... I'm sure you're parents are very proud of you..." the Elder whispered.  
Piper cleared her throat, making Odin look up startled.  
"Piper!... Good morning!" he said.  
She smiled. "Good morning Odin," she said, went over and took the baby to feed it. "How was your night?"  
Odin smiled: "Amazing... Just amazing... Now I understand why Leo didn't want to give up all this." Piper looked at him, then nodded.  
For a moment there was nothing but silence, and Odin started to feel uncomfortable. He wasn't sure if Piper liked him to be around... after all...  
"Well," he said then, "I guess I should go up there, and try to find out if there is something new..."  
Piper nodded again, but before he orbed away she add: "Breakfast at eight o'clock... would be nice if you could join us."  
Odin nodded with a smile: "I'll try to come." Then he orbed away.  
Piper sighed when the orbing lights disappeared. Then he looked at her baby: "Do you like him?" Baby Christopher chuckled, making his mother smile.  
"Good morning," Bianca said suddenly. She had entered the room just that second, to look after her girl. "Where is Chris?" she asked then. "Have you seen him?"  
Before Piper could answer they heard some noises form the attic. She looked up, shaking her head. "I guess he's doing what he always does... and I'm afraid my other sons are with him."  
Bianca sighed. Then she took a look on her sleeping princess and caressed her cheek softly. She smiled: "Grandma Piper will watch over you, while I go to look after your daddy."  
Piper couldn't help smiling when Bianca left the room to climb up the stairs.

°°°°°°°°°°

When the first rays of the morning-light found their way into the room, Cole opened slowly his eyes. He was still lying on the sofa, where they had fallen asleep again, with Phoebe snuggling in his arms, sleeping peacefully.  
He observed her for a while. Then he smiled. She was so beautiful in the warm light of the morning. 'How can God be so good to me?' he thought and kissed her cheek.  
He tried not to think about his nightmares that moment. He didn't want to... And anyway the would be back home at the manor in a couple of hours.  
Then another thing crossed his mind. He was married now, he had a wife... a wife to take care of.. and he really wanted to do that... the classical way.  
Again he kissed her. Slowly she began to wake up. He chuckled when he saw a smile on her lips.  
When Phoebe finally opened her eyes to meet his, he whispered softly: "Good morning." Then he kissed her nose.  
Phoebe smiled and rose to the half. For a moment she looked at him, then she gave him passionate kiss.  
"Wow," he muttered, "do that every morning, and I'll be the most happiest man in this world."  
Both chuckled a little. But Cole turned serious again. "Honey, there is something I want to talk to you about," he said.  
Phoebe frowned: "So serious... at that time of the day?"  
He nodded: "Look... we're married now, and... how shall I say it..."  
"Just say it honey," Phoebe said smiling sweetly.  
Cole looked at her, he knew she would be upset about that, but... "Ok," he said, "I want to work as a lawyer again, and I want you to quit you job... I'm going to take care for you, there is no need for you to go to work, ok? And I want to find a nice home for us... for just you and me..." When he had spoken out his thoughts, Cole sighed, waiting for her complainings.  
Phoebe just looked at him, first a little confused. But she felt his immense love for her, so she smiled: "Ok, no and no."  
Cole sighed, but before he could say something Phoebe went on.  
"I agree, when you really want to do that, to be a lawyer... than do it! I would never complain about that..." she said caressing his chest softly. "But I won't quit my job... I can't... honey I love writing... and I love to help people with that..."  
"And your 'ex'?"  
Phoebe smiled: "So you're jealous?"  
"No," Cole complained, and then added blushing, "maybe a little."  
"Don't be honey... I love you, only you!" God, he was so cute. She loved him so much and she was sure he loved her too... she knew it.  
"I know," he answered and kissed her again.  
Phoebe smiled: "And about our home... we already have one... And you yourself told me that Wyatt had mentioned some enlargements... Maybe it's just time to start with that..."  
Cole sighed, then he nodded: "Alright... So I guess, I will search for an architect..."  
Both started to chuckle, then they kissed again.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Sometimes in the future:_  
As soon as Matthew had shimmered them to the attic, Chris broke down. He was holding his had and cursing in a way Matthew had never heard him before.  
"DAD!" he exclaimed and knelt down next to him. The boy felt the fear rising inside him. "MOM!" he yelled. "GRANDPA! UNCLE SILAS!"  
"I'm alright," Chris whispered, when he heard the panic in his son's voice.  
"Dad," Matthew sobbed. He felt so helpless.  
"I'm ok," his father said, grasping the hand of his boy.  
At that moment Bianca shimmered in, the Elders followed seconds later. They rushed over to him, to see what was going on. But Chris already rose to the half, the headache was gone, but...  
"Are you ok, honey?" Bianca asked. But Chris didn't answer. He was just staring into the nothing. So the Phoenix turned to her son: "What happened?"  
Matthew shrugged: "He wanted to orb home and then..."  
"Oh my God," Chris muttered suddenly interrupting his son.  
Leo and Silas helped Chris to stand up and to sat down on the far too old sofa. Everyone looked really worried.  
Silas sighed and put his hand on his friend's shoulder: "Chris, come on, tell us what happened..."  
The Elder-witch kept silent, but a tear went down his cheek.  
Matthew looked at his father scared. He had never seen him cry before... or maybe sometimes because of too much laughter... but never in that way.  
He fought his way through the adults surrounding his father and sat down on his lap, hugging him. "Dad, are you ok?" he asked shyly.  
Chris closed his eyes for a moment, then he hugged his boy tightly. "I'm alright, don't worry."  
"But what happened?" now Leo asked.  
Chris sighed: "I only realised this minute that I lost one of my best friends."  
"Who?" Silas asked worried, cause the way like this happened could only mean one thing...  
"Steve," Chris answered.  
Everyone looked at him frowning. Bianca sat down next to him and kissed his cheek. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder.  
"But..." Leo rose to speak, "Steve committed suicide over twenty years ago."  
Chris again closed his eyes, trying to handle the emotions that were overwhelming him. "That isn't right," he said slowly with a little anger. "He never did that... He never freaked out that way... He overcame his fears, we went after Rhashirk together, we vanquished him together..." He made a short break, looking at the other who tried to understand. Then he went on: "He's supposed to live... He is supposed to marry Nicki, and to have twins with her... Hell, I've talked to him yesterday!"  
Matthew hugged his father closer, instinctively. Also Bianca hugged him, trying to comfort him. Leo and Silas looked at each other. That was a real big change in the time, when all this was true.  
"We have to stop this dad," Chris said suddenly, looking deep into his fathers eyes, with tears in his own.  
Leo nodded: "But how?"  
Chris turned to his son: "Hey Matthew... would you like to help us rescuing the world?"  
The thirteen year-old boy looked at his father and swallowed: "How could I? I'm not..."  
"Chris what's your plan?" Bianca asked worried about her son's safety. She had no idea what Chris was planing.  
The Elder-witch sighed, still looking at his son: "Hope said you're a telepath... and she said, because you're kind of out of time, like me and your mom, you could maybe contact also people who are not in this - in our time... especially your uncle Wyatt..."  
"WHAT?" Bianca exclaimed scared by all this. This was their son Chris was talking about, damned!  
"But dad... You know I can only shimmer and maybe threw something telekinetically... But I never..."  
Chris just looked at him, then he kissed his forehead. "Your powers had been bound before you had been born... believe me, deep down inside you, you have that power."  
"Honey, you can't do that," Bianca begged, "he's thirteen... he's too young for that..."  
Chris looked at her: "He's the only chance to turn the things right... to bring the Elders back on our side... He's Steve's only chance."  
Tears were welling up in Bianca's eyes. She didn't want her little baby to do that... That was to much... She didn't want him to end up like her husband. Even if she knew that Matthew already was practising with his powers as often as possible... she didn't want that for him...  
"Dad... I'm afraid..." Matthew said, "I can't do that, I'm not able to..."  
Leo sighed: "Chris I agree with Bianca and him... That's to risky."  
But Silas shook his head: "When those things Chris told us, had been true... than it's worth it."  
"Yeah, maybe..." Leo snapped back, "but that's my grandson you're talking about..."  
"Yeah," Chris said angry to those two Elders, "and my son!" Then he turned to Matthew again: "And therefore you're the only one to decide that... It's your decision, only yours..."  
Matthew looked from his father to his mother and than back again. He knew that his dad wouldn't complain if he would say no. He was sure... And he hardly understood all that... all that timetravelling stuff... But he knew his dad wouldn't ask him if it wouldn't be important. He sighed and nodded: "What do I have to do?"  
Chris closed his eyes and sighed relieved. He smiled for a second. Then he looked at his son serious again. "I'm sorry, buddy," he whispered. And Bianca was sure that he meant it. Then Chris cast a spell.  
_"Calling for all the ancestors of mine  
and beggin' to every magic in every time  
end the spell that was once done  
return the powers to my son."_  
A second later some little spot's of lights were circling through the air surrounding that fearful looking young boy.

_

* * *

(Chapter 6 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x) _


	7. Chapter 7

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 7**

_In our time:_  
"Why do I so often have to wake up alone," Bianca said smiling when she entered the attic. But then she stopped. "Julian? What are you doing here?" she asked. The colored witch smiled.  
Wyatt, who was frowning, turned to look at Bianca: "That is what we were wondering, too... If I'm right, you did not want to help us, did you, Julian?" he asked, fixing his eyes on the witch.  
Julian shook his head resigned: "WE didn't think it was the best thing to do... but now we've changed our minds," he said simply.  
"Wait, wait, wait..." Bianca said, approaching Chris, and taking him by the hand: "Help HOW?"  
Chris shrugged as Christopher stared at them wonderingly. He had repressed himself when he was about to say hello to Julian, waving. He wasn't sure about the future consequences, and he didn't want to be grounded for... the whole eternity.  
"Actually I thought you didn't know anything..." Chris said, narrowing his eyes.  
"Is that what you told them, Wyatt?" Julian asked, shocked.  
The blonde man shrugged: "I know what our relationship is like in the future, I couldn't tell them that you would not help. That would probably have broken that friendship." All of the six remaining people frowned; therefore Wyatt went on: "I knew you would finally help us..." He grinned triumphantly.  
Tom and Veronica were working hard with their minds trying to understand what was going on.  
"You didn't seem to believe that," Julian muttered.  
"Well... I was furious. But then I thought that in my time you are our friends; that would mean that you two never abandoned us... I shouldn't have tried to get your help. I'm sure your help would have come on its own, as it's happening right now."  
"Wow..." Christopher said, who had never really understood all that mess of time travelling. "Whatever... Are you gonna help?"  
Chris, Wyatt and Bianca looked at him expectantly.  
The colored witch smiled: "Well... At least I'm gonna share the information we have: Cristóbal... He's got new powers now, and he's more powerful than he was."  
Tom rolled his eyes, this time: "Too late, man. That's something we know, and I have some evidence..." he said grimacing as if his injury still hurt.  
"But we also know who's behind all this. Who's helping him. And we know the motifs."  
Now he had all the attention. Julian kept smiling. He knew that this helped them, but it was helping Belthazor too. Actually, he was the Source of all Evil, and this new demon, the one behind all the story, was threatening his throne too... That was why he had accepted, in part, to help.  
But at that very moment, another person appeared at the door in the attic.  
"Mike..." Chris muttered, at the sight of his pale friend.

°°°°°°°°°°

"And?"  
"... And I had to bring her here... I'm so sorry! That stupid little witch. I don't know how he found my lair!"  
The old demon was quite annoyed: "That was not part of the plan. If something else fails..."  
Cristóbal swallowed. He knew... he knew very well. "Nothing will, I promise. They do not know this place, they won't find her here. They could not find that witch you told me about. The one you held and tortured in this very same place."  
"Pray that you're right." The demon said menacingly, looking to the cave. The girl was inside. Probably she had no idea of where she was. And no one had. But this time, they hadn't make that spell to make the others believe that she was somewhere else.  
"I am... We only need to hide her for a few more hours. It'll be easy."  
"Of course..." the demon turned his face to the moon, the wolves, as always, howling around.

°°°°°°°°°°

It knocked on the door. Cole opened it to let the waiter in. They had ordered a huge breakfast, the 'honeymoon-breakfast' and those things the waiter brought were looking really delicious.  
Cole gave him a gratuity and was about to carry the plate to the bed room, when the waiter stopped him.  
"Mr. Halliwell?"  
Cole grinned at Phoebe who had just entered the lounge, too. "Oh I love that sound," he said to her with a wink. Then he turned around to the waiter again: "Yeah?"  
"I have a packet for you," the man said and gave Cole a black box with a red ribbon tied up to a big loop.  
Cole took it frowning: "Who had sent that?"  
The waiter shrugged: "I don't know... Have a nice breakfast and if you need anything just hit the zero on the telephone."  
Phoebe nodded: "Thanks." Then the waiter left the suite.  
Cole followed him with his eyes. "Who could have sent that?" he asked then, turning to his wife.  
"I don't know," she shrugged, "maybe dad..." She went over to him: "Why don't you just open it and find it out?"  
Cole nodded. He opened the loop and put away the ribbon. Then he lifted the lid. Inside, carefully wrapped into soft cloth, was an really old wooden pony.  
'Nothing special,' Phoebe thought. But she noticed a weird kind of excitement inside her husband as soon as he saw it.  
Cole stared at that pony with an unbelieving smile. "Oh my God," he muttered in a childish voice. His shivering fingers caressed the wooden toy softly while he sank down to the sofa, his eyes turning watery.  
"Honey, what is that?" Phoebe asked.  
Cole just kept focused on the pony and mumbled: "I can't believe it."  
The empath shook her head, feeling the joy inside him. She examined the box and found a paper. She unfolded it and read.  
_"Dear Mr. and Mrs Halliwell. My best wishes to your marriage.  
Cole, I guess you will recognise my little gift. That's the best I have to give to you. It was at the same place were we had left it, you remember?  
I wish you both all the best for your future... B.  
- By the way... It's nice to go back to the roots... if you ever need help, I'm sure you know how to find me."  
_When Phoebe looked up, she saw Cole chuckling and crying at the same time. She went over to sat down next to him and took his still shivering hand into hers. "Honey... what is that?"  
Cole wiped away his tears and smiled at her: "This pony... it's nearly as old as I am... I got it from my father when I was three... I always loved that little pony... I was hiding it from my mother, especially... after she had killed him."  
With his last words his voice and eyes turned sad. Phoebe felt that there was still pain inside him. She sighed.  
But it didn't last long. The light in his eyes returned quickly as he said: "I can't believe that he had found it, that he is giving that to me... It's... It's overwhelming."  
Phoebe smiled. She had never seen Cole like that... ok, maybe when he returned from death and she forgave him, or when the babies had been born... But no... At that moment Cole was so all churned up inside, like she had never seen him before.  
And then Phoebe realised another thing. He had never before spoken about his past, his childhood like that. He had never told her anything about his parents before. 'Oh God... How could his mother kill his father?' she thought.  
But, Cole was just happy that moment, she felt it. She put her arms around him and hugged him tightly, enjoying his excitement. "I love you," she whispered.  
Then another thought crossed her mind. 'Maybe he's right about Belthazor... Maybe something inside him had changed too...'

°°°°°°°°°°

"Ooohhh... So sweet..." Paige said, as she entered the nursery still half-asleep, rubbing her eyes.  
Piper raised her head, smiling. She was sitting on the floor, holding little Chris. Hope was in the cot by her side, and Wyatt was playing with some toys, and from time to time approached his mom with curiosity to look at his little "bother".  
"Yeah, well, Wyatt... When you grow up, try to tell Chris that he's a "bother" and then wait for his reaction," Piper said, laughing.  
Paige accompanied her, as she sat by her side and took Hope in her arms. "You know...? We're getting so used to see your sons in their adult version that we're gonna want to see all the rest of the clan soon. This is becoming the rule in this family," she said, grinning.  
"Yeah... I can't believe my little Chris is here... Christopher." She paused, thoughtful. "I'm not really sure if I should call him like that already... I mean, they said he'll tell me that he wanna be called like that..."  
"So let him tell you when the time comes..."  
"Yeah... It's just that I'm getting used to call him like that now. By the way... Have you see how different they are?"  
Paige grinned: "Oh, yes. VERY different..."  
"I can't stop thinking that our Chris would have been like him, so lively, so happy, so... innocent, if he had had a good life."  
"Piper..." Paige put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Don't start with that... Chris is happy now, and he helped to create all that, he has his own little family, so I'm sure that is enough reward."  
Piper nodded. Then baby-Chris started to whine, and his crying became louder and louder little by little. "It's ok... You're with mom here..." Paige smiled again, at the sight of that scene.  
"Anyway, you're right, we have something more important to worry about now... Our little baby will be part of a plan I don't really like..." Piper said, without taking her eyes from the baby in her arms.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey..." Wyatt went to Michael, and led him to a seat. "Are you ok?"  
The man shook his head: "Actually I am not. I woke up there, alone, and when everything that had happened came to my mind, I freaked out." He was at the verge of tears, and Chris knew. He sat down by his side, and tried to make him calm down, in front of the interested looks of the rest.  
"I'm sorry we left you alone. We didn't mean that. I was..." He took a look at the book. "Actually I was looking for something that could help."  
Michael smiled grateful: "You should have slept." Actually he was feeling quite angry because he thought all his friends had forgotten about him, and that they had decided to enjoy a party upstairs without him, he thought ironically.  
"He never sleeps," Christopher said, shrugging. Bianca frowned. Her husband was gonna have again difficulties to sleep?  
"Ok... That is not the point," Wyatt said. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, guys, but time is coming nearer... And now, Julian... if you don't mind..."  
All the heads turned to him, as he smiled and went on: "His name is Rhashirk."  
Chris frowned... He had never seen that name in the book. Anyway, it was worthwhile to try again, so he left Michael with Wyatt and went to take a look at the book. Christopher opened his mouth to say something, but Wyatt's look made him shut up again.  
Tom and Veronica were looking at Julian with curiosity, wondering what he knew, when the voice of the twice blessed interrupted him: "He won't be there... You won't find him there. Don't waste your time."  
"But who the hell is Raskirshk?" Tom asked, trying hard to say that name.  
"Rhashirk. The demon who's behind all this. He wants to destroy the Halliwells, as always, because he thinks they are the greatest threat he'll have to face before getting the throne. Destroying the Halliwells means destroying the balance between good and evil."  
Michael shook his head. "But what does it have to do with me and my wife...?" he asked tiredly.  
Julian turned to look at him: "He gave Cristóbal his powers back, and some more useful powers, so that he would help him in his plan. Chris is the first on both men's list. For one, you are the most powerful in the family because you have lived in so many timelines and know too much. For the other, you don't deserve to live here, this is his timeline, and he wants revenge. Once Chris is killed, Cristóbal will regain his place in life and in the Underworld, and of course, he'll help Rhashirk with the rest of the family." He stopped here, and all the others kept silent as a grave.  
Finally, Christopher burst, lively and happily: "Only he doesn't know that the man he's gonna kill won't be Chris!"  
"Christopher!" Wyatt exclaimed, visibly angry.  
His youngest brother looked at him, surprised: "What??"  
"Don't talk like that... He's not gonna kill anyone."  
Christopher blushed, looking at Chris, and realising his other version's countenance: "I mean... He's not gonna kill any of us, don't worry. I'd never get me killed. It's just a way of talking."  
"Christopher..." Chris said, staring at him. "Actually I'm not really sure of this... I don't wanna risk your life." Wyatt sighed, relieved, before his brother went on: "Not now that we know the plan and..."  
"No way!" Christopher cut him off. "I want to help, and you can't keep me away from the action. Come on, Chris... cast that spell on me to let me get rid of my powers, and then we'll see. I'm sure none of you will let me die..."  
"Be sure of that," Chris said, "but still it's not funny... and too risky."  
They all kept silent for a moment. Tom used that chance to step a little forward. "I don't like to bring more bad news up, actually, but as I said before I have something to tell," he said hesitating a little, looking at Michael.  
Chris looked at him: "One more or less doesn't matter I think..."  
Tom nodded. He glanced at Michael from the corner of his eyes, before he turned his head completely to him again: "I guess you missed the part, that we saw your wife in the underworld..."  
"What?" Michael jumped up but Wyatt pulled him down again.  
"She's fine..." Tom stated. "Well... physically..."  
"Yeah, right," Christopher said, "You've mentioned that you have something more to tell, before Julian distracted us." Tom nodded.  
"So what is it," Piper asked. She had just entered with a weeping baby in her arm, walking now over to Bianca. "Guess someone is hungry here," she whispered and gave Hope to her mother. Paige followed short after her sister together with the other kids.  
Tom sighed: "You will not like that..."  
Christopher rolled his eyes: "Just say it ok?"  
Tom looked from Christopher to Michael and then to Chris: "She knows."  
"What... What do you mean?" Michael asked jumping up again.  
"She knows me... she knows what happened... she knows everything about your time in the other kind of dimension..." Tom explained. Chris let out some air, not knowing what to say.  
"Oh my God," Michael muttered. He sank back to the sofa and hid his face in his hands, crying silently.

°°°°°°°°°°

Three hours later Cole parked the car in front of the manor. He shut down the engines and sighed.  
"Are you afraid?" Phoebe asked.  
"No... at least not because of telling them that we're married... but... because of what else I want to do..."  
Phoebe frowned looking at him. There was a weird kind of determination in his eyes. And then it hit her: "You want to tell them...? I mean that you...?"  
He nodded. "I think they should know it... don't you think?"  
"I would have never asked you for that, honey," she said smiling.  
He smiled too. "I know," he said and kissed her full of love. Then he left the car, walked around it, and opened the door for his wife. He offered her his arm which she took with another sweet smile, and together they climbed up the stairs to the front door.

°°°°°°°°°°

Inside in the attic the family was still discussing how to handle that terrible situation. The fact that Angela remembers everything wasn't helping at that point... it even disturbed their planning, because Michael got completely mad about that... Everyone understood him, but he wasn't helping with that.  
And then Chris was still discussing if his not-that-little version should take part in this or not, but suddenly he stopped within his speech.  
"What's wrong?" Piper asked. Holding baby-Christopher in her arms.  
"Cole..." he answered sensing his uncle, "and Phoebe, they are coming..."  
"Oh that's good, cause we really need a babysitter," Bianca joked.  
Chris grinned at her in a weird way, then he turned to Christopher: "I think it's better you stay up here for a few minutes, because I don't want them to get a heart-attack"  
Christopher grinned: "No problem."  
"We'll stay here, too," Veronica said looking at Tom. And also Julian decided that it would be better to join them a little later.  
Chris looked at Michael. "I'll take care of him," Christopher said, patting his brothers shoulder.  
"Thanks," Chris answered, and followed the others downstairs.

°°°°°°°°°°

When the couple entered the house, they heard a lot of footsteps from the stairs.  
"Hey, folks, we're home!" Cole yelled.  
Seconds later the whole family stood in front of them, watching them. They all noticed, that something was different. Phoebe seemed to glow in a weird way, and Cole looked kind of shyly from one to the other.  
Chris asked himself if it was because of the news he had to tell, or still because of his dreams. When he had been alone the last night, he had began to think that there was maybe more about that, too.  
Piper frowned, when she saw her sister grinning: "Ok, what happened?"  
Phoebe looked at Cole, like she was about to explode: "Can I...?"  
He chuckled and gave her a passionate kiss. Then he nodded. "I wouldn't dare to spoil that, that's your moment."  
Phoebe whispered a 'thank you' and turned to the rest of the family again. Then she hesitated a moment. How should she tell that? "Ok," she said, thinking hard about her next words, while Cole was still chuckling.  
Phoebe smiled and pointed at Cole: "This is Mr. Halliwell!" Then she looked at her sisters expectantly.  
Paige narrowed her eyes, thinking deeply, she really had now idea what this was about... or maybe she was too distracted with their other problem.  
Piper was still frowning. 'Mr. Halliwell?' she thought. 'What kind of joke...' "Oh my God," she muttered when she began to realise what was going on, what they had done.  
Phoebe just nodded and Piper again said, now with an excited voice: "Oh my God... Oh my God!"  
She ran over to her and hugged her sister.  
Then Bianca realised it, too. Smiling she went over to join them, same as Paige who finally understood.  
Wyatt and Leo looked at Chris who was smiling, too.  
"Brother, I'm lost..." the twice blessed said.  
Chris grinned: "I thought you know when they have their wedding day..."  
"What?" Leo exclaimed. Chris just nodded.  
The next second Piper slapped Cole playfully on his chest: "How could you do that without us?"  
"Outch... Sister..." Cole grinned. "we did it because we just wanted to... without any demonic spoilings..." he explained while hugging her.  
She nodded: "I'm soo happy for you..."  
They all embraced each other and congratulated. This were really good news in such bad times. They just needed to enjoy this short moment of happiness. But then Cole turned serious again.  
"Well Cole... What's wrong?" Leo asked, who had noticed the look on his face.  
Cole sighed: "I... well... there is something else I want to tell you..." Everyone looked at the man expectantly. Phoebe took his hand to show him, that she was on his side.  
He smiled at her, before he faced his family again. "Well... What Phoebe said is true... I picked up her name, because that fits better to me... now..."  
"What do you mean?" Paige asked, while Chris, Leo and Wyatt exchanged knowing looks.  
Cole sighed: "I... I'm a witch..."  
"WHAT?" Piper, Paige and Bianca exclaimed at the same time.  
Phoebe stepped a little forward as if she wanted to protect him.  
"It happened when I was in the fields about one year ago... remember, if you pass the trial you become a witch," Cole explained shyly.  
"But they said the field isn't working anymore..." Bianca said.  
Chris shrugged: "It seems there was a little magic left... that's also why mini-me has the power of premonitions too..."  
"He has?" Piper asked with eyes wide open in surprise.  
"Yeah," Phoebe said excited, "they have the same power like me... isn't that great???"  
Piper and Paige didn't know what to answer... they didn't know if it was 'great'...  
"And Christopher should have that power, too?" the oldest sister asked, trying to catch all that.  
At that moment bluish orbing lights filled the room. "Yeah I do... well, kind of..." Christopher answered grinning.  
"Oh my God... I knew there was something going on," Cole muttered only slightly surprised by his appearance.  
Phoebe just stared at the absolute carbon copy of her nephew in shock. Then she fainted. Cole grasped her and prevent her from falling.  
He put her on the sofa, while Chris rushed over to heal her. But she was already about to gain back her conscious... It was just the shock which was to much for that moment.  
Still a little dizzy, she looked into concerned green eyes. "Which one of my nephews are you?" she asked  
"The neurotic one," Christopher answered, before Chris could.  
Phoebe rose a little. Her eyes moving around towards the 'twins'.  
"Yeah," Chris grinned at her, "and when you don't want to piss him off, call him Christopher..."  
His little brother eyed him warningly, but then his look softened again and turned into a grin.  
"That's unbelievable..." Phoebe said. "Any other surprises?"  
Cole who had sat down next to her holding her hand worried, looked at his nephews who were suddenly kind of serious. "I bet there are..." he said and sighed.  
"As always... A demon," Christopher said with a calm voice, as if it was nothing.  
Chris looked at him, and shook his head. "Do you remember Cristóbal?" he asked then. He couldn't and shouldn't hide this from them.  
Phoebe looked a little scared: "Of course, I do. What has he done?"  
At that moment Michael came down the stairs, his face red because of the crying. "What did he do with him?" the empath added, when she saw him and felt the weird emotional state he was in. Then she looked at Chris.  
"His wife. He kidnapped Mike's wife... But actually he want me, for her..." When Michael heard those words, he started to cry again, this time even harder.  
"Oh, my God..." Phoebe said, turning paler and paler, her hand being held by Cole's strong one. "Why didn't you tell us?"  
Chris smiled weakly: "Well, aunt Phoebe, because you were relaxing... And After all... I think it was right that I didn't interrupt you."  
Cole shook his head gravely: "Young man, I told you that if there was something you should have told us. I knew there was something. And you lied to me, I can't believe it." Phoebe pressed his hand kindly, as all the others in the room observed in silence the interaction between the two men.  
Chris lowered his eyes ashamed, but he didn't have the opportunity to say anything.  
"Look at that, I always wondered why the only person in this family capable of making Chris feel guilty was uncle Cole. And I'm still wondering!" Christopher said.  
"He doesn't make you feel that way?" Phoebe asked, frowning.  
"Nope," he said simply, looking at an embarrassed Chris. "I mean, our relationship is great, but... Chris's relationship with him has its roots somewhere else, you know... At least that is the way Chris explains that always."  
Cole shook his head and smiled, and Chris did the same, looking into his eyes.  
"Yeah... you're right." Piper took Leo's hand, staring at her son full of love, and Paige grinned widely.  
"But... even if there's much to talk about, uncle Cole, and you'll want to know everything... Now we have a plan to carry out."  
"Yes, and I'm ready brother," Christopher remarked, stepping towards him.  
"So..." Paige clapped her hands, "let's go to the attic, there's no time to lose!"  
"Yeah... Wyatt look for the spell to strip Christopher from his powers. But don't do anything without me. I have something to do first." After these words, Chris orbed without waiting for an answer.

_

* * *

(Chapter 7 written by Chrissy.W.x, Belén and charmedfreak)_


	8. Chapter 8

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 8**

Angela was sitting in the middle of the cage, shivering. She didn't know if that was because of the fear, or the cold, because it was not a warm place at all. It was darker than the other place where she had been before, still her eyes soon got used to the space around her. It didn't take her a long time to see the chains that hung from the walls, in the ceiling or even in the floor. It was the most terrific place she had ever been in...  
Or not? She felt a chill at the memories of that other plane where she had been imprisoned for so long... She felt like crying. The last months had been the best in her life, without knowing all that, even if it was weird, to have missed 20 years... without growing older. Life had changed so much in those years, with computer's CD's, electronic money... but still the life she had was a good one... But that was all a lie. Or not? She wasn't sure of anything, anymore. But one thing she knew for sure... She hated those new memories. She needed them not to be true.  
Suddenly she heard footsteps, and she started to tremble spasmodically. She raised her eyes to face her kidnapper...  
"Hello, my dear. Are you feeling comfortable in this room? Or do you want to make a claim?"  
Angela kept staring at Cristóbal, shivering, but with a determined expression on her face. "He won't do it. He won't come just to save me."  
Cris laughed a little bit, and sat by the cage, starting to caress the bars slowly, almost lovingly: "He will, my love. He did it once, and he'll do it again. As I said... He loves playing the hero. And he trusts his family sooo much. So yes..." He grinned: "He'll come. But don't show that face, you will enjoy the show... I promise."  
The girl lowered her eyes, holding her tears back: "Where... where am I?"  
Cris sighed, leaning a bit on his back and putting all his weight on his arms. "In paradise, girl." And he started to laugh evilly.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was in the magic school, in Gideon's office. He was staring at the mirror, covered by the curtain. After some minutes of indecision, he stepped forward and pulled the curtain aside.  
"Hey..." both Chrises said at the same time, with their arms still in movement. "I thought you would never open this stuff." Both men laughed slightly.  
"Is your mini-self here too?" evil Chris asked on the other side of the glass.  
Ours smiled and nodded: "Does yours have your hairstyle?"  
Evil Chris laughed heartily: "And yours?"  
Chris smiled and nodded. "Yeah... guess that answers both of us."  
"Yeah... So..." Evil Chris looked aside, as Chris did. "So you're gonna risk his life."  
Our Chris didn't answer, because the other one knew already the response. Both men looked in each others' eyes.  
Finally evil Chris smiled, embarrassed: "Weird, isn't it? I mean... The stuff of Cristóbal... The Spanish guy."  
Our Chris nodded: "Yours is good... I guess."  
"It depends on what you call good... He's gonna kill me," evil Chris said without taking his eyes from his good twin on the other side.  
"What is he like?" Chris asked, ignoring the comment.  
Evil Chris chuckled again: "Pretty much like... like you. Only he loves my hairstyle."  
Our Chris smiled: "Yeah... My Cris is just like you, but with a better taste."  
Then both men turned serious again. Evil Chris lowered his eyes: "Look, man... this is gonna be difficult. It's like being killed by you. Or like killing you... somehow."  
Our Chris nodded. "I know... Ok... I guess I should say good luck..." he said.  
He started to pull the curtain over the mirror again, but suddenly stopped, when evil Chris said: "Hey, we didn't come here to say good luck."  
Our Chris lowered his eyes. "I know... But I didn't want to say the other thing."  
"Goodbye brother," evil Chris said, without thinking much.  
Ours stared in his eyes, holding back some tears. He sighed. "Goodbye," he muttered. Then they both closed the curtains, and our Chris leaned against the wall by its side, sadly.  
He had been thinking hard about Wyatt's words when he saw him talking with his evil self. And after all that time... after seeing the image of an evil Wyatt again, he had decided that his brother was right... The mirror world was not a thing to play with. He knew now, with all this Cristóbal-thing. He couldn't stop thinking about it... In the mirror world, Cristóbal was good... But he was gonna kill Chris... The other Chris. That was too weird.  
'Pretty much like...like you'. These words hit his mind once and again. He wasn't like that Chris. He was more like Cristóbal... Or wasn't he?? Was he more similar to his evil self?  
He shook his head. Wyatt was right. It was dangerous. Because the real reason why he was there was that he wanted to stop his evil self from doing what he was gonna do. He didn't want him to kill Cris... The good Cris. And evil Chris didn't want him to kill evil Cristóbal, for sure... For the first time, he had seen his mirror self like his enemy. They had been in tension. And at that very moment he... they...had realised that Wyatt was right. And they had said 'GOODBYE'.  
Chris dried his tears, and orbed back to the manor. That day, whatever happened, someone who was exactly like him, who was him, actually, was gonna die, in two different worlds.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki had left Steve alone for a while, as she prepared some tea. She couldn't believe what he had asked her to do. She couldn't... she just couldn't erase his memories... But he was in so much pain... And what about her? She would remember everything he had told her, but he would have forgotten... She would not be able to stand that...  
Steve, meanwhile, was looking through the window, silent, concentrated on the height of his apartment. It was really high... The cars were so small... After a while, he took a little pencil and dropped it. It took ages until it reached the ground, and he didn't even see that. This made him shiver, and close his eyes, feeling dizzy.  
It would be only some seconds... eternal seconds... He shook his head. What about Nicki?? She loved him so much. And he loved her... But that. THAT was the reason.  
Nicki came back with the tea making him turn, startled.  
"What were you doing?" she asked smiling, but seeing he was nervous.  
"I... I was just looking through the window," he said, taking a seat by the table.  
She nodded: "This is a beautiful sight... Look at the bridge in the back. I love this sight..."  
Steve nodded and sipped the tea, feeling Nicki's eyes fixed on him. But he said nothing. He just drank, still looking through the window.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Sometimes in the future:_  
Matthew stared out of the window in the attic. He was scared, really scared. Three days ago he had agreed, when his father had asked him for help. He had been scared, but... he had never expected something like that. When his father had cast that spell, when the lights came... He was a telepath, he was able to read everyone's mind... or better, he had not been able to stop doing that. He was so scared when he heard all these thoughts in his head, and he knew why his father had told him that he was sorry for him.  
But then, the last three days - which actually had been only a few hours, but his mother had slowed down the time around him, so that he had enough time... the last three days, they had taught him how to handle that, how to block out all these thoughts. Now he was able to control it... more or less. But still he was scared. He was the one to rescue the future, he was the one to save everything... BUT HELL, HE WAS ONLY THIRTEEN!!!  
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok, son?"  
Matthew turned around to face his father. "No," he admitted.  
The Elder-witch nodded and hugged his son tightly and he felt him shiver. Chris loved him so much, and he felt guilty for doing that to him. But he also knew about the other future, he needed to bring back. The future, where the Elders didn't fear them, where his son's best friend was the son of Steve... Still he hated himself for doing that to his baby. That wasn't right and he knew it... Not only because his wife hadn't talked to him since he had cast that spell...  
He sighed: "I'm so sorry, son." He kissed his hair lovingly.  
"I know dad," Matthew muttered into his shirt. Then he looked up: "Will I still have these powers, when this is done?"  
Chris sighed again: "I'm afraid... yes..."  
"But how...?" Matthew didn't understand all that... it was all a little too much for three days.  
"Look... when we do that, we will be out of time that moment... so when the changings happens, we will be not really here in that time to be affected by this..." Matthew nodded sadly.  
"Hey..." Chris said, caressing his son's cheek softly, "I know this is hard, but don't worry too much about all that, ok?... I promise you, everything will be alright... And I'm always there for you. "  
"I know, dad," Matthew whispered.  
But still it was loud enough so that Bianca could hear it. She stood in the doorway to the attic, not noticed by her two 'boys'. She hated Chris for what he had done. Matthew wasn't supposed to have these powers so soon in his life. He was supposed to gain them back little by little... like Hope did it. But she knew there was no other way. It was too risky to send someone really back in time, because, according to Chris, there were still little changes. If Hope would orb now, she could end up everywhere, maybe even in another plane...  
Bianca could only imagine how Chris felt at that moment, with all the changings he was noticing, with all the guilt he felt, and she knew that he did. She loved him so much... She couldn't be mad at him any longer.  
Slowly she walked over to them, still unnoticed. Then she grasped Chris by his shoulder and turned him around. He looked at her surprised.  
"I'm sorry," she said and kissed him.  
"I love you," Chris answered relieved.  
Then she hugged her son. "Don't worry, baby..."  
"MOM!" Matthew complained. He hated it when she called him like that... even if it felt good that moment.  
"... you will not be the only one that has to live with that. Your dad will remember that, too... same as me..."  
"And me," Hope said, while orbing in.  
"No..." Chris wanted to complain.  
"We do that all together," Hope said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.  
"... or non of us," Bianca added, copying her daughter's gesture, "we all have the spirit of time in us, we can help stabilise this..."  
Chris sighed: "Alright..." Then he turned to Matthew: "Ready?"  
He nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Back in our time:_  
When Chris came back to the attic, Wyatt looked at him serious and nodded. Chris smiled. He knew his brother knew what he had done. And when he saw a smile on Wyatt's face, too, he was kind of relieved.  
The others in the room had noticed the silent conversation between the two brothers.  
Christopher had observed them kind of jealous. Because even if he was the 'real' little brother, the connection between Chris and Wyatt was much stronger. But then, when he thought about what Chris had gone through in his life... 'You're always keeping an eye on little Wyatt, maxi-me,' he thought grinning.  
"Ok, you two," Cole said pointing at Wyatt and Chris, "I know you have that special connection, but talking like that in front of others is quiet annoying."  
Chris turned to him: "We didn't talk, non of us is a telepath."  
'Well, not you...' Chris suddenly heard his brother in his mind. He turned around startled just to see a huge smile on Wyatt's face.  
'Sorry, for not telling you sooner,' he heard him again, 'but seeing the expression on your face, now... that's priceless!'  
Chris grimaced at him, then he smiled, too.  
"Ok, ok, could you please just focus?" Bianca asked, looking at Michael from the corner of her eye. The man was surrounded by Tom and Veronica, but he seemed kind of absent.  
Christopher nodded: "Is the spell ready?"  
Wyatt sighed: "Yes..." Still he wasn't sure about all that, but time was flying. He took the sheet of paper and went over to his brothers.  
He had just made a few steps when suddenly he felt like his brain wanted to explode. "Arrrrrr..." he yelled, holding his head.  
"What's wrong?" Chris and Christopher asked approaching him. But before they could reach their brother, they were thrown back by a kind of energy field that was suddenly surrounding him. At the same second Wyatt collapsed to the floor.  
"What is that?" Piper asked. "That's not his own forcefield, is it?" Christopher shook his head while Chris approached the field again.  
"Be careful," Bianca and Piper said at the same time.  
Chris nodded. Raising his hand, he moved slowly closer to the field. When his skin made contact with the energy, he was flashed by a picture... a picture of Wyatt, and a boy, and him... him, but about 20 years older. He flinched, muttering: "Oh my God."  
"What happened?" Leo asked.  
"That's a window..." Chris said, breathing heavily after that shock.  
"A window??? What Window???" Christopher asked confused.  
Chris looked at him, still kind of shocked: "A window to the future."

°°°°°°°°°°

When the headache was gone, Wyatt opened his eyes. He had expect to see the worried looks of his family, but they were not there. Everything he could see was darkness except a little spot where he was kneeling. And in front of him stood...  
"Matthew!" he exclaimed and hugged his nephew. "What are you... what is that here?"  
"I'm a bridge," the boy explained, "dad needs to talk to you."  
Wyatt looked at Matthew confused: "Chris? But I..."  
"Hey little brother!"  
Wyatt turned around to face the older version of Chris... HIS Chris actually. "Ok, what happened?" he asked the Elder-witch, because he knew something must be very wrong, when his older brother did that to his son. He knew the only way this all was possible, was that Chris had undone the power-binding-spell...  
"A lot," Chris said, "and this is the only way to tell you how to stop that."

°°°°°°°°°°

After five minutes, the window (like Chris had called it) disappeared. Nearly the same second Wyatt rose to the half, looking around and trying to clear his mind. He felt still a little dizzy, when his family - and even Michael - came close to him to see if he was alright.  
Wyatt closed his eyes for a moment. All the things Chris - his Chris had told him... He couldn't believe that he had asked him to make sure that a demon could escape... But on the other hand, he didn't want the Elders to fear them, too.  
And then Steve... he had to rescue him... Chris was meant to talk to him, to help him... but he didn't, they hadn't found the time, because of Christopher... If Tom hadn't been so surprised by all that, he had told Chris about Steve, but this way, he didn't... Steve... 'Shit,' he thought and jumped up.  
"Hey, you really should relax," Piper tried to push him back down. She was really worried, same as the others... Her son had been unconscious for a couple of minutes. He shouldn't just jump up like that.  
But Wyatt freed himself from her grip. "No time for explanations," he said. Then he orbed with his brother away, leaving the others confused behind.  
"And now?" Paige asked.  
Cole sighed, then a smile appeared on his face: "Well, I think I got an idea."

°°°°°°°°°°

They materialised right in front of Steve's and Nicki's apartment. As soon as they did, Wyatt rang the bell and knocked on the door at the same time.  
"Can you tell me what's going on here?" Chris asked confused.  
"Later," Wyatt just said and knocked even louder, still ringing the bell with the other hand.  
"What did I tell you?" Chris asked again.  
Wyatt turned his head, still knocking and ringing: "What?"  
"I saw me... me, just older... they were calling you from the future, right?" Wyatt nodded, still hammering against the door.  
"And I also saw a boy... Who was that?" Chris asked.  
Wyatt froze. He closed his eyes, angry about the fact that Chris saw him... What would now be spoiled when he would find out that this boy was his son.  
But before he could answer something, the door was finally opened.  
Nicki looked at them and tried to smile. But it didn't worked that well. Everyone could see that she had cried a lot.  
"Where is Steve?" Wyatt asked without saying 'hello'.  
Nicki looked at him confused: "What?"  
"Chris has to talk to Steve... because he did that before... he has to talk to him, before he does something stupid... So where is he???"  
Nicki frowned: "In the bed room, he said he wanted to be alone for a while."  
"Shit," Wyatt exclaimed. Then he orbed away.  
Chris and Nicki stared at the spot were Wyatt stood a few seconds before... Then the truth hit her. She ran to the bedroom and threw the door open, with Chris on her tail. But the room was empty. No sign of Steve or Wyatt... But... the window... it was open!  
"Oh my God," Nicki cried, breaking down into Chris arms, "that can't be... tell me that he didn't..."  
Chris stared at the open window shocked. He didn't know what to do or to say.  
The same second bluish orbing lights filled the room. And then they saw how Wyatt threw Steve onto his bed. "CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT THAT SHOULD BE?" Wyatt yelled at him breathing heavily. "ARE YOU COMPLETELY NUTS?"  
Steve looked around confused. 'I should be dead, why am I still alive?' he thought... 'Wyatt... he had picked me up while I was falling... Damned, why couldn't he let me die...?'  
Then he saw Nicki, and the look in her eyes broke his heart... he hadn't meant to hurt her like that.  
"HEY MAN, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Wyatt yelled again.  
"Wyatt..." Chris said with a calm voice, "it's ok..."  
The twice blessed looked at Chris kind of furious. But his brother knew that look only meant fear...  
"Could you take Nicki to the living room?" he asked. Wyatt nodded, took the hand of the girl and left with her the room.  
Chris sighed. Then he went over to Steve and sat down next to him. He was really shocked to see his friend like that. Steve had always been a kind of 'sunny boy'. He was always in a good mood, and he was such a good witch... But not now, now he was just a small shadow of himself. And it made Chris feel guilty because he hadn't seen this coming. He should have noticed that his friend needed help, after all that had happened.  
"I'm sorry," Chris said.  
Steve looked down to his hands, which he had folded on his lap: "For what?"  
"I should have been there for you," Chris said, "we are friends right... I should have been there for you to help you..." Steve said nothing.  
"I know how you are feeling right now..." the Elder-witch said then.  
Steve grinned weakly: "Yeah... sure... in your dreams..."  
"No," Chris said, "I felt exactly like you... every time my freaky big brother of my timeline did anything to torture me... which was quiet often after I had finally left him.  
Steve sighed: "Maybe... But I'm not you..."  
"I know," Chris said, "but what would you gain if you do something like that... if you would kill yourself?"  
Steve sighed again: "It would be over... it would be over forever..."  
Chris put an arm around the young man: "Maybe... but what about Nicki... Have you seen her? How scared she was? She loves you... have you ever thought what you're doing to her with that?"  
"She would be free when I'm gone..."  
"I don't think that she wants that..." Chris said. "Steve, she loves you..."  
The young man sighed again: "I know..."  
Chris closed his eyes, thinking about what to do. He had no time for that, but he knew that Steve needed someone to talk... someone who could understand him.  
"Look... I know this is difficult, and I wish I could stay with you right now, just to talk... But..."  
"You need to save the world..." Steve said sarcastically.  
Chris grinned: "No, only Angela, the mother of the girlfriend of my freaky brother..." Then he sighed: "Please promise me to not try this again... I swear I'll come back as soon as possible, to talk to you... ok?"  
Steve looked at him, for the first time he looked at him. Chris could read the pain in his eyes. "How could you do that... I nearly killed you and the family."  
Chris hugged him: "No... you didn't... if you did, I wouldn't be here..."  
Steve sobbed into Chris's shoulder and the Elder-witch had to fight hard not to cry on his own. But he knew that would be wrong now. "I swear we will find a way..."  
Steve nodded. He felt not really better, but knowing that Chris cared about him, helped him in a way...  
Then Chris called for Nicki. Seconds later the woman entered the room, followed by Wyatt. Both stopped at the door, unsure what to do.  
Chris looked at them and sighed: "Nicki, have an eye on him... always..." She nodded, still shocked. Then he looked at Steve again: "I'll be back as soon as I can..."

°°°°°°°°°°

When the two brothers reappeared in the attic, they could see how the tension had grown there. Julian had left, and Tom and Veronica were sitting on the floor by Michael, who was pensive and completely absent. Cole was sitting on the sofa, with his legs crossed, wrapping Phoebe in his strong arms, and Piper and Leo stood by the book, talking with Christopher, who was showing his back to the others.  
"Hey, brothers! It's done. Christopher Halliwell does not have powers anymore." He was grinning, but Wyatt shook his head.  
Yeah... it was Christopher; it was not this Chris, the adult Chris in his time, but his little brother. And he was always that happy and careless, but he knew him really well... And he knew that behind that mask, and even if he wanted to appear different, he had Chris's genes, Chris's cells, and Chris's brain. He had only had a better life, period. And just because of that, Wyatt could perceive the terror in his little brother's voice, as well as Christopher's worries... worries shown also in all the other faces, and especially in those of their parents.  
However, Wyatt would not say anything at all because he knew Christopher's temperament, and he also knew how hurt he would feel if they tried to persuade him not to do it, if they showed him their mistrust. Instead, he was about to ask where Bianca and Paige were, when Chris almost jumped at his mini-self's words. "You did WHAT!!!??? Why didn't you wait until we were back??" Wyatt shook his head again and looked to another side. "Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't do anything without me?" Chris went on.  
Christopher lowered his eyes. And Leo patted his shoulders, looking at his son: "This was the plan. We need to hurry, and we needed to know that it'd work. The time is near..."  
Chris touched nervously his hair: "But... what if anything...?"  
"Paige is in the kitchen making a potion for any possible demonic problem, and we cast the spell slightly changed, so that his powers come back after some time," Leo explained.  
"Everything's under control, brother..." Christopher said, blushing a bit, and not daring to look in his other self's eyes.  
Chris shook his head. No... it wasn't. Why hadn't they waited...? Of course, he would not say that he was still considering the idea of going himself, as it should be, and leaving Christopher behind to protect his back, together with Wyatt. That was why he was so pissed off... But things had been done.  
Michael looked from one to the other, shivering and almost crying. All that was for him... because of him...  
Suddenly he felt Tom's hand on his back: "Hey Mike... All will be fine, ok? Don't worry... This is like a big family, we all are part of it, and we support each other. This is part of the game. They'll be fine." Veronica smiled at him reassuringly, and he nodded. Then Tom turned to look at the Halliwell brothers, again.  
Cole closed his eyes and hugged Phoebe. He didn't like that. Not after his nightmares and all.  
Wyatt put his hand on Chris's shoulder and whispered: "Remember I have just seen the future again. And you have seen it yourself, everything will be fine."  
The young Elder-witch sighed and nodded. "Ok... Where's Bianca?" he asked noticing her absence.  
"She's in the nursery. Little Hope needed to sleep again, after having eaten, and Wyatt was bored. She had to make him calm down and sleep too," Piper answered.  
Chris nodded, and went to the book, starting to flip through the pages absently: "Well, let's do it and save Angy once and for all." Then he smiled at Mike and his tone turned to the resolute voice that everyone knew so well. "You'll have to walk, Christopher, since you don't have powers. You already know where you need to go. But Wyatt and I will be right there even before you arrive. We'll cover you. You do not need to worry about anything at all, ok?? Just do what he tells you, and trust us."  
Christopher swallowed to dissolve the lump in his throat, and nodded, smiling.  
Then Chris turned to Piper and Leo. "Mom, you..."  
At that moment Paige orbed back: "I have the potion. This will kill any darklighter. I made this one too, just in case you wanna try it in Cristóbal, but since he's not on the book, and we don't know who gave him those powers, I don't think it's useful. Anyway, it could weaken him..." She shrugged: "It's all I could do." Chris nodded, taking the vials, and keeping them.  
Christopher saw surprised how he put one of each in his pocket and gave the others to Wyatt. "Hey... shouldn't I have them with me??"  
Wyatt shook his head: "No, Christopher... Cristóbal is not stupid. The first thing he'll check is if you were really stripped of your powers and if you have any potion. Probably he will even know before appearing. Otherwise he'd never have risk himself that way. And we don't want to put Angy in danger, either..."  
Mike trembled unconsciously, and Tom pressed his shoulder. Christopher nodded again, but he didn't like that at all.  
Chris closed his eyes. He hated doing that. He did really hate using his brother as bait. He took a deep breath: "Ok... Mom, as I was saying... You, Phoebe and Paige, surround him, but do not show yourselves until Angy is free. Then, be prepared for any demonic attack. Wyatt and I will be focusing on saving Christopher and killing that genetic twin of mine. Dad... You just pay attention, and be ready to appear if something happens, you know..." He did not want to specify.  
"What about me?" Bianca asked, right after shimmering in.  
"Hey... sweetie..." Chris looked at her, smiling sadly, "you should stay with the kids and..."  
"No way. I am a Phoenix, Chris, I know much about this kind of things..."  
Veronica shrugged: "We'll stay with the kids... If you want."  
"I wanna go..." Tom said.  
Wyatt sighed: "Ok... You all, listen to me. The general now is Chris, so do what he says, and do not question him, because with this discussion we're only losing time."  
Everyone shut up, and Chris smiled at him, grateful: "Fine. As I said... Bianca will stay here with the kids and Veronica, Mike will go with Christopher, of course... Tom can come. Any active power could be useful there..."  
Cole stood up, and looked his nephew in the eyes: "You won't keep me behind. I'll go."  
"Cole, no..." Phoebe said.  
But Chris smiled softly: "I did not even try to mention the contrary... But you must stay with dad, and if you have any kind of vision, let him know, he'll know how to make the news spread."  
All the people in the attic nodded, even if some disagreed with the plan.  
Chris approached his little self, and hugged him: "Thanks, man... I appreciate it much."  
Wyatt stared at them proud of his brothers, and then looked at his worried parents and drew the following words with his lips: 'I'll take care of them.'  
"Ok, let's go," Chris said.

°°°°°°°°°°

Angela was alone again. After a while, Cris had left, probably to talk with some other crazy men like him. Then, she had time to think about all the story again...  
But suddenly, Cris flamed in, and without saying a word, opened the cage and pulled her out rudely: "It's time. Be good, and you'll be fine." His eyes bright out of excitement.  
Despite her fear, Angela couldn't help thinking of how much hatred that man had against Chris, that made him glisten in happiness.  
Angela took a last quick glance at the entrance of the cave, but she only could see darkness, and the shape of what seemed to be trees, whose branches danced with the rhythm of the wind. The wolves were howling... And they shimmered away. But right before disappearing, she would have sworn that she had seen another person there, looking at them attentively, wrapped up in the darkness.

°°°°°°°°°°

Christopher went over to Michael. He wanted to pull him up, but was interrupted by the sound of someone orbing in.  
"I'm sorry, I couldn't come earlier," Odin apologised. "We had a meeting... unofficial..."  
"Unofficial?" Chris asked.  
Odin nodded: "The situation turns to be complicated... Some Elders seem to be completely against you Chris... I guess they are still afraid."  
The Elder-witch sighed: "Great, that's what I've needed now."  
Wyatt rolled his eyes, then he patterned his brothers shoulder: "If everything goes as it should... this will soon be history."  
Christopher nodded: "Yeah, the Elders are our friends..."  
Chris nodded, while Wyatt swallowed. The twice blessed hoped that this would be still true when they would return to their own time. But therefore, Rhashirk had to escape...  
"I agree," Odin said, "that's just like a phase... they just need to see that you're a good boy..." Then he looked around. "Where are the kids?" he asked.  
Piper grinned: "They are sleeping, in the nursery."  
"Again?" Odin asked surprised.  
"Yeah, babies do sleep a lot, uncle," Christopher said smiling.  
"Oh... Can I go and..." Odin said, not paying attention to Christopher's laughter.  
But Chris interrupted him: "No... Bianca and Veronica will take care of the kids... But if you want to help, you can go with Leo and Cole, we could maybe need you there, too."  
Odin nodded: "Of course I'll help if I can..."  
Piper watched the Elder amazed... He was really caring about the Halliwell-family... And when she saw the deep friendship lying in the look of Christopher when he faced his 'uncle', she knew that Leo's idea, of making him a godfather, was a good one.  
"Ok, Michael," Christopher said then, pulling up the man, "time to go!"  
"Be careful," Piper and Wyatt called after them, when the two went down the stairs. Then they heard the front door close and Chris swallowed.

_

* * *

(Chapter 8 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_


	9. Chapter 9

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 9**

"Thank you..." Michael muttered after some minutes of silent walk. Christopher raised his eyes to meet Michael's questioningly. "You know..." Chris's friend continued, "I haven't said thanks to you yet... despite the risk you're taking."  
Christopher smiled widely and patted his shoulder: "You don't need to thank me."  
Michael shook his head: "I want to... This is too much. You don't even know me."  
This time, Christopher could not help laughing: "Oh, man... You forgot where I come from?"  
Michael went confused for a moment, but then smiled sadly: "Oh, yeah... I guess you do. But don't worry, I know... Future consequences."  
Christopher started to laugh again: "I'm not Chris and his future consequences. But you're right, I'm not gonna tell anything else..."  
The two men kept on walking in silence for a while. They were approaching the park, and Michael was more and more nervous.  
"Can I ask you something?" he said, to break the ice again and also to distract himself. Christopher nodded, and gestured to encourage him to talk. Michael cleared his voice before saying anything: "I...I was wondering if... I mean, I know you're not Chris, and you are not like him, but... I was wondering why are you doing this?"  
Christopher looked at him curious, so he explained himself better. "Chris is my friend, I knew he'd do this for me and a lot more, even if he's scared to death..." And he had to laugh sarcastically at his pun. But Christopher was still staring at him, confused, so he went on: "I know he would really die for me, or any other innocent, if necessary." Michael stopped, and looked him in the eyes: "I mean... Are you really aware of the danger?"  
Christopher shook his head, disappointed: "You think that I am the typical young boy who never had action in his life and needs to prove something, unaware of the dangers that it hides."  
"No, I..."  
"It doesn't matter, man..." He walked on, followed by Michael. "Everyone thinks that. I mean, everyone here, now. I know. They see me, and see the happy guy who's always smiling and laughing, in contrast with Chris, who had such a bad life... But you'll get to know me in the future, don't worry. All of them will do. And if you wanna hear it, yes... I AM scared to death. But if I can help my brothers, and if I can help you somehow, I'll do it. And I just didn't want them to know how scared I am, that is all... But you're not human if you are not scared... I guess. And Mike, I prefer thousands deaths than letting my brothers die."  
Michael listened attentively, realising how mistaken all of them had been with that boy. He was like Chris, he was Chris. Happy and with a better past, but it was the same person, as it should be. Now he had the impression to be talking to his best friend...  
But the young witch went on: "At least they have a reason to exist. I am just the result that proves that their mission was fulfilled. I am like a mirror for Chris... He can look at me and see the Chris he could have been. But that is all, and..."  
"No, no, no, don't speak like that," Michael intervened, opening his eyes widely at his words, "you're more than that. Oh, man... Another Chris with the inferiority complex, no..."  
Christopher startled, but then, he burst into laughing: "Ok... sorry, I just opened my heart to you too much."  
Michael nodded, and smiled: "And thanks for doing it, but... You're not gonna die here, today. Not for me. Not for them, either."  
Christopher smiled sadly: "I wish I could have such a good friend as you, in my time." He sighed. Then he grinned: "But don't worry, it's not my intention to die."  
Suddenly they stopped walking and looked at the entrance they had in front of them. The Park of the Golden Gate... They had arrived. Both men swallowed. May Chris's plan work.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve was lying in his bed, wrapped into the blankets. He hugged his pillow and cried silently.  
Nicki still stood in the doorway, facing his back. She couldn't move, she was still frozen in shock. A tear ran down her cheek. She sighed. 'How desperate he must be, when he tries something like that,' she thought. She still wasn't able to believe that she had almost lost him.  
Finally Nicki walked over to the bed. She sat down in his back, hesitating a moment. Then she put her hand on his back. He didn't react.  
"Steve?"  
Nothing.  
"Steve," she sobbed, "Please talk to me..."  
"I'm sorry," he whispered, "if you now hate me, I understand that..."  
His deadly calm voice made Nicki shiver. She felt her heart breaking for the hundred of times in the last couple of days. "How could you say that..." she said crying. "Honey, I don't hate you, I never will... I love you too much to be able to feel any different... I love you..."  
"I love you too..." Steve sobbed. Then he turned around, threw himself to her arms and cried again.  
Nicki closed her eyes. 'Please God, let Chris be able to help him,' she prayed in her thoughts. Then she kissed his hair. She would never ever leave him alone again... never.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt and Chris had orbed to the park, long before Christopher and Michael reached it. They sat, side by side, on a statue, hidden by Chris's Elder-magic.  
"How long will they need?" Wyatt asked.  
"A few more minutes..."  
Then they kept silent again. Everyone was submerged in his own thoughts.  
After a while Chris sighed: "Was that all?"  
"What do you mean?" Wyatt looked at him confused.  
"I mean the message from the future... All that effort for telling you to rescue Steve? Or was there more...?"  
Now Wyatt sighed: "More, but believe me, Steve would have been reason enough for you... Anyway, I also shall prevent that the Elders will hate you for the rest of your life... Or at least for the next 23 years."  
Chris rose an eyebrow: "And how?"  
"Don't ask," Wyatt replied, knowing, that his brother wouldn't like the truth.  
"Ok," Chris said, looking around, trying to see someone. But there was nobody there in this park at that time. "What about the boy?" he asked then casually. "Who was that?"  
Wyatt sighed again: "I can't tell you..."  
"Future consequences, I know," Chris said chuckling. Then he added: "Maybe a child of Paige and Kyle???"  
"I can't tell you..." Wyatt replied.  
"Or another brother for us?" Chris kept asking, he just let his imagination work. He didn't really mean all that...  
Wyatt shook his head: "I can't tell you..."  
"Or maybe... Phoebe and Cole...???"  
"Chris, I can't tell you..." Wyatt said again closing his eyes... that was so annoying...  
Chris grinned: "Or maybe a nephew for you..."  
"CHRIS!" Wyatt exclaimed looking kind of angry at his brother.  
The Elder-witch stared back at him, back into his eyes. Chris hadn't meant what he had said, not really... but... there was something in his brothers eyes... something that told him that he had hit the point. But could that be, that he would have another child? It couldn't be Christopher's, right? But after all what had happened with Hope... They didn't think about having another child... they didn't want to repeat all that.  
"What... What's his name?" Chris asked not knowing what else to say at that point.  
Wyatt shook his head and turned his eyes away from him: "I can't..." He stopped in the middle of the sentence and pointed with his finger to a spot in the distance. "Look!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca was looking through the window absently as Veronica played with little Wyatt. Hope and little Chris slept quietly in their cots. The manor was so silent...  
The Phoenix sighed, almost unaware of it, and this made Veronica raise her head. "Are you ok?" she asked, while she held a little toy and Wyatt fought to get it back.  
Bianca turned to her, wearily: "No... All the family is gonna face a great danger, and again I've been left behind. It was ok before, I was pregnant, but now..."  
"Now you have a baby to take care of..." Veronica said, as she smiled at the giggling boy, who was trying desperately to get the toy.  
Bianca went to the couch and sat down letting out another sigh: "Piper has two. But still, it's me the one left behind."  
Wyatt jumped to get his toy, but Veronica raised her hand even more. "Do you think he's over protecting you?" She asked.  
Bianca didn't answer immediately. Wyatt, tired of his useless attempts, decided to orb the toy to his hands. "Oh, little man, that was unfair. You tricked me out!" Veronica exclaimed, stroking his curly hair and making him giggle more, as Bianca smiled too.  
"I don't think he's that kind of man that believes that the woman must be kept behind, or anything like that. But even so... Yes, I think he's exaggerating. Chris must think that I am made of glass, and he doesn't realise that I am scared too, that he is not immortal."  
Veronica grinned, following Wyatt with his eyes, as he ran towards to Chris's cot and put the toy by his sleeping brother. "Maybe you should let him know what you think."  
Bianca sighed, and leaned her head on the back of the couch: "Maybe..."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Look!"  
Chris turned to the spot that his brother was pointing at, and saw himself... saw Cris, actually, dragging a tied up Angela. "Oh, my God..."  
He was about to jump off the statue, but Wyatt grabbed his arm: "We need to stick to YOUR plan, brother."  
Chris swallowed and looked around. He wished that all his family were in their positions. He should be there, stripped of his powers. Christopher should have stayed with Wyatt and he should have gone down there... He sighed, and sat down again, to keep looking at the scene in tension.  
"There they come..." Wyatt whispered, when he spotted his brother and Michael.

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo was watching attentively the place where his sons must be hidden and cloaked by their magic. He himself and Odin had done the same thing with Cole, and they were some yards away from them, in the middle of a small group of trees.  
"What if Cristóbal can feel magic?" Cole asked, nervously.  
Leo shook his head. "I don't think he can. He'll be ready to test Chris... Christopher actually. But I don't think he can sense magic farther away from them."  
"I hope so..." Odin muttered without taking his eyes from the spot where they were supposed to carry out the exchange. "Wait... Someone's coming."  
The three faces turned to stare at the approaching voices. A woman's muffled cries reached their ears, and the three went tense.  
Soon, two other figures would join them.

°°°°°°°°°°

The three sisters and Tom were hidden just on the opposite side, covering the backs of the newcomers, surrounding them. Each of them was hidden in a well-chosen spot, ready to act whenever it was necessary. They talked among themselves by means of signals, and thus, they made one another know that the moment had come. Cris was there with Angela, and some moments after, Christopher an Mike arrived too.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Well, well, well... Little rat. Here we are. I'm gonna miss you when this is done. I'm starting to wonder if I should really deliver you to your husband, or have more fun," Cristóbal was saying. Angela fought against her restraint but she was tightly bound, her hands at her back and gagged. Cris didn't want to run any risk.  
He smiled: "Whatever... I don't understand you... Now, listen to me. Your little husband is coming there. When I have what I want, I'll free you. I'm gonna give you a chance to escape. You and Michael. Just run. I don't really need you at all, but there are some witch-hungry demons around, and this will be a slaughter in a while, so just run." 'It will be funny to watch you trying to escape, with Chris dead at my feet, and the rest of his family fighting for their lives.' he thought.

°°°°°°°°°°

"There they are..." Michael almost cried at the sight of Angela. He would have run towards her if Christopher had not grasped his arm tightly.  
"Walk by my side, don't do stupid things." he warned, as he himself walked on.  
Michael looked at him and nodded. He seemed to be so tense, so worried... So scared. Then he looked at Angela in anguish. He needed to free her. He really needed to help her...  
However, they both walked on slowly, silently, staring at a smirking Cris. Finally they stopped at some feet away from them.  
Christopher took a deep breath. "Here I am... as you wanted. Free her, and I'll be yours," he said.  
Cristóbal smiled: "Here you are... But as I wanted, I don't know. So no, I won't free her. Come nearer."  
Michael gasped. That was a trap. It had to be a trap... He looked at Christopher, and then at Angela, anxiously. She was breathing so heavily... And had so much fear reflected in her eyes...  
Christopher swallowed, and stepped forward, but stopped again: "How can I believe that you'll free her?"  
"How can I believe that you are powerless?"  
Christopher looked aside very quickly. His breathing was faster and also his heartbeats and he was starting to sweat. "I am. I promise."  
"Yeah..." He made a fireball in his hand, in front of the three terrified people. He pointed it to him: "Then how will you prevent this ball from hitting..." Suddenly he changed the objective and threw it to Michael, causing Angela to gasp in horror.  
"No!!" Christopher opened his eyes widely, and jumped over Michael, pushing him to the floor and getting the impact in his place. He cried in pain. "Bastard..." he muttered, gritting his teeth, on the floor.  
"I guess you are right... You are powerless." He let the girl go, but pulled Christopher towards him telekinetically, and then he grabbed him from the neck.  
Angela run towards her husband, who freed her, and took her gag away. "We need to run, Mike!" she exclaimed.  
Almost at the same time Cris told Christopher, menacingly: "...but you are NOT Chris." And he grinned, noticing the terror in his eyes.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Shit!" Wyatt and Chris said at the same time.  
The Elder-witch was about to jump down to the grass and ran over to his baby-brother. But Wyatt hold him back. "Wait!" he exclaimed with a low voice.  
"But he will kill him..." Chris complained trying to free himself from his brothers grip.  
Suddenly Chris felt a kind of headache, as is someone was entering his mind. It lasted only a second but it made him feel a little dizzy. Still he wanted to help his brother: "Wyatt... let me..."  
"Nothing will happen to Christopher... Look!" Wyatt said pointing at his brother and the demon.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile Cris had thrown Christopher back to the grass.  
"Who else shall I be?" the young man asked looking at the demon. He had to distract him... at least till his friends are save. He needed something, some information about Cris. He closed his eyes, concentrating on his 'older' version, on his mind. He needed to see exactly what happened when he and his genetic twin met the first time. Thanks God Chris didn't know that Christopher could enter his mind. He wasn't really a telepath like Wyatt... for him, it only worked with Chris. His dad had told him that it had to do with the fact that they were kind of the same person, even if they were not, still they were...  
Meanwhile Cris glanced at the witch-Elder, trying to examine the truth. "You could be a whitelighter... or you could be Paige!" he said grinning, forming another fireball in his hand.  
Despite his fear, Christopher laughed: "Do you really think I told them??? They would be here now if I did... And I didn't want that, I would never risk my friends life." Then he turned around to Angela and Michael. They sat in the grass nearby. 'Go... Run...' Christopher drew with his lips. Then he turned back to the demon, thinking about the pictures he saw in Chris's mind. "Did your jaw still hurt from where I knocked you out?" he asked teasing the demon. At the same time he heard fast footsteps disappear in the distance.  
Cristóbal kicked Christopher on the stomach, strongly: "You wanna mock me, damned Halliwell!!??" He cried. "You wanna mock me!!??"  
The young man curled like a baby, gasping out of pain and breathless. He had to do something, and he had to do it soon...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris startled at the sight of what was happening. "He's gonna kill me... him..." he said, feeling still dizzy. It was as if he felt somehow what his other self was feeling.  
But Wyatt pinned him down again: "I think he knows what he's doing."

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Michael was running with Angela towards the small group of trees, only looking back at times. He had to go back and find Chris, they had to save him... Where the hell were they?  
Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed Angela's hand and covered her mouth so that she didn't scream. Michael turned shocked, but then he relaxed.  
"Shhh..." it was Cole. Angela's heart was beating so fast that she seemed she was going to faint sooner or later.  
"It's ok... I'm a friend of Chris and your husband..." he said. "Don't cry, please... Leo?" He turned to Leo, as he took Angela by the arm, still covering her mouth gently. "Someone has to take them back to the manor."  
Michael followed them: "Where is Chris? And Wyatt?"  
Leo nodded at Cole, as he observed the scene meters away from them: "Odin, do as he says, take them back."  
"Where are they?!" Michael asked again, as Odin took him by the arm.  
Cole made Angela promise that she would not cry, and she nodded, calmer now, although she was still trembling.  
"Oh my God..." Michael muttered. They had heard Christopher scream in pain.  
"Why doesn't he escape...?" Leo muttered, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth.  
"Escape?? He doesn't have any power!!" Michael yelled, furious.  
Odin and Cole glared at him, making him lower his eyes, as Angela kept turning her look from one to another, trying to understand. 'He knew... He had really known, all the time.'

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper was staring at her future son being hit that way, and needed a lot of will power not to move, as well as some warning looks of her sisters and Tom. He should have gone already... He should escape... They would not be able to attack Cris if...  
Suddenly they saw how someone shimmered by the boy and made him stand up, grabbing him by the neck.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hello... What do we have here..." the old demon said, as Christopher choked between his hands, fighting desperately to break free. That was not part of the plan... and at the same time he felt the spell wearing off.  
Cristóbal approached him with a weird smile on his face. "Is he really powerless?" he asked. Rhashirk, the old demon, smirked as he looked deep in Christopher's eyes: "I'm afraid I was right all the time. He did not get rid of them at all, did you, Chris?" He threw him to the ground. "He just hid them with magic... You thought we were so stupid as not to realise??" he exclaimed.  
Christopher looked at them in terror, but then he clenched his jaw and with a rapid movement of his wrist, sent Cris to the ground, some meters away from him. It was supposed to work on both demons, but Rhashirk's hair was the only thing that moved, and his lips, drawing an evil smile.  
"Bravo..." He clasped his hands. "Bravo!" Then he stepped nearer the young boy...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris could not stand behind anymore: "This was not the plan. What the hell, Wyatt? What crap is this??" He jumped down from the statue and tried to run towards him. This time Wyatt did the same thing, something was wrong...  
But they crashed against a forcefield. When they got up, still in pain, and turned to look around, they saw a bunch of demons waiting for them.  
"Shit..." this time, both brothers said it, and also the sisters and Tom, who had tried the same thing from the other side.

°°°°°°°°°°

Odin had just left with Michael and Angela, even if they did not want to leave, but Cole and Leo were still looking at the scene.  
"Damn!" Cole exclaimed. Leo had kept him behind when he had tried to run and help, and that had saved them from falling in the same trap. "Why didn't he orb before?" Cole asked, meaning Christopher.  
Leo shook his head, anguished: "I guess because Mike and Angy were still there. And then it was too late. We should have known..."  
Cole sighed: "Well, Chris did, that's why I got this idea to only cover Christopher's powers... because we both were afraid this could be a trap." Leo just nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

He was being hit, actually. Christopher hadn't orbed when he should, because Angela and Michael were there, and then, when Cris started to hit him, he was unable to think, even less to focus on orbing away.  
Now, as he looked from one side to another, tying to crawl on his back, he saw how his whole family was trapped there too. He had failed them all... And Rhashirk, that damned demon, was approaching him now.  
"But the funny thing, my little friend..." he looked to Cris, who was standing up, "is that you tricked him off too." He burst into an evil laughter: "He thought you were his Chris, the one he wants to see dead!"  
Cristóbal frowned, angrily, as he saw how Rhashirk lift Christopher telekinetically by his throat, making him choke: "Trying to hide your magic from me..." He shook his head in disappointment, as Christopher tried to breathe. "You can hide it from anyone, but not from me... The Lord of Darkness."  
"I want Chris, and I want him now! That was the deal!" Cris cried, furious.  
Rhashirk shrugged: "You'll have him..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Wyatt were fighting hard, using their telekinesis and fireballs and rays, and everything they could, to kill all those demons. Time was running, and Christopher was in a serious danger. But more and more demons shimmered in. On the other side, Piper blew up as many demons as she could, Phoebe kicked and hit, and Tom froze them as Paige orbed and tried to do her best hitting, and using a dagger she had brought with her. They needed to break that forcefield...

_

* * *

(Chapter 9 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)_


	10. Chapter 10

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 10**

Odin had orbed with Michael and Angela to the attic of the manor. But no one was there.  
Angela stood there, frozen in shock about that way of travelling. Then, when she realised what had just happened, she broke down crying. She couldn't understand all this... How was that possible.  
Michael knelt down next to her. He hugged her relieved that she was alright... physically at least. First Angela felt safe in his arms... for the first time in the last 36 hours. But then she remembered that he had lied to her and pushed him away. "GO! LEAVE ME ALONE!" she exclaimed.  
Alerted by the yell, Bianca shimmered in: "What happened...?"  
Michael looked at his wife who was looking at him fearful. He swallowed, afraid that he still could lose her in a way... Or maybe he already had...  
"Where is Chris?" Bianca asked after noticing that he wasn't there.  
Odin sighed, seeking for the right words. But Michael, as angry as he was about that whole situation yelled: "IT WAS A TRAP DAMNED!"  
The Elder rolled his eyes. 'These were surely not the right words,' he thought.  
Bianca looked at them shocked, same as Veronica who just had entered the attic, too. "Wha... What do you mean?" the young witch asked with a lot of fear in his voice.  
Odin sighed again: "Well, when we left, things were a little messed up because this other demon appeared.  
"WHAT?" both women exclaimed at the same time.  
Meanwhile Michael again tried to approach his wife, but she flinched. He sighed, then he turned to the others: "I'm afraid we're not save here, too... if that demon wants to erase the whole family..."  
Odin nodded: "Yeah... Bianca, you should go with them and the kids to the school and I..."  
"NO!" the Phoenix exclaimed. "I will not sit back, while my husband is in danger and..."  
"Bianca," Michael said looking at her with watery eyes, "you can't go... Chris would kill me if I let you... You've given birth to your daughter just four days ago... You nearly died, and you're still looking a little pale... it's to risky till you're not completely fine."  
Odin looked at the man surprised. After all he had gone through, after all he still has to go through with his wife... he still was caring about the wife of his friend... 'He is truly a real friend,' he thought, 'and worth the risk of exposing magic.'  
Bianca sighed, knowing that her friend was right. And then she noticed for the first time, the state Angela was in. "Alright," she said, "I agree... but..." She turned to Odin again: "You go back and help them... bring him back to me save, ok?" Odin nodded and orbed away.  
For a moment the Phoenix stared at the spot where the Elder stood seconds before, then she turned to Veronica: "Take the kids up here and I'll shimmer us to the school."  
The woman, who was kind of shocked about the fact that also Tom was in danger, nodded weakly. Then she ran out the attic and down the stairs.

°°°°°°°°°°

The fight was hard, but they were doing as much as they could. Chris tried desperately to break through the second forcefield that had prevented him from reaching his mini-self, but demons were implacable.  
Wyatt looked at him out of the corner of his eye as Chris sent a demon telekinetically against the forcefield and knocked him out. His brother was surrounded... Chris was tired and for each demon he vanquished, three more appeared. What the hell was that?  
Wyatt sighed and said: "Ready to duck?"  
Chris looked at him, questioningly, but he had no much time to do anything.  
"NOW!"  
The young Elder-witch ducked just in time, because suddenly a huge blast of orange colored energy was emanating from Wyatt's hands, killing most of the demons there. Chris gasped in shock, but then he turned. There was no time to lose...

°°°°°°°°°°

Christopher was again on the ground, and Rhashirk had left him alone. In fact, he had gone out of the centric forcefield to take care of the business in which he was interested: The sisters.  
Besides, Cristóbal would love to take that information out of that clone on his own, but Rhashirk himself didn't mind at all. That little crap would be done once he had killed the sisters... His family.  
Christopher's nose was bleeding, and Cristóbal seemed to be really pissed off.  
"Where's the true Chris, the real Chris???" he asked, getting nearer to kick him again.  
At that moment Christopher raised his hand and sent him telekinetically to the floor, but this time the attack was weaker.  
Cris stood up angrily and ran towards him, determined to kill him if he didn't talk.  
"I'm here!" Chris suddenly exclaimed, from outside the forcefield. Both men inside turned to look at him and Cris smirked, as his enemy begged: "Free him... You can have me if that is what you want."  
"CHRIS!" Christopher cried frowning angrily.  
But neither his other self nor his enemy paid attention to him. They just stared at each other, the second one with an evil smirk on his face. "Come in..." Cristóbal said. Chris swallowed and nodded, as he saw the forcefield being pulled down.  
"Chris, no..." Wyatt tried to stop him, but as soon as he tried to cross the line, the forcefield was raised again and rejected him.  
"You let him out!!" Chris said referring to Christopher, who had not had time to escape.  
"I'm not gonna go anywhere!" he answered.  
Cris grinned: "Two by one... That sounds good. But I don't like that you tried to trick me out... You two have your powers..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Wyatt had stood up again, in pain. He had not time to see what was happening inside that forcefield, since his eyes caught another sight... The sisters and Tom. They were fighting Rhashirk on the other side. And they were being beaten really hard.  
"Mom..." he muttered, and orbed to the other end of the forcefield that still surrounded them. Piper was on the ground, bleeding in her chest, and Paige and Phoebe could not do much... They were held by demons. But Tom... He wasn't there anymore. Whatever, he had to save Piper.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca had taken them all to the library were they had placed Angela onto the sofa. The woman was completely shocked about what had happened to her... All the things she had gone through with that man who looked like Chris... that was nothing to the last minutes, when she had discovered that it was true that her husband had lied to her, when she had been at different places within a second... What the hell was that... and where was she now??? It was all a little too much.  
Michael was sitting on a chair, facing his love. He felt so much sorry, for all that had happened to her. He wished he could turn back the time to stop all that from happening. But even if he knew that Chris maybe could... that wouldn't change anything... something like that could always happen again. The only thing he could do was separating from Chris... and that was something he just couldn't... he didn't know why, but... he knew he wouldn't be able to.  
Bianca and Veronica had built up a kind of bed on the other sofa for the babies. They were still sleeping peaceful while Wyatt was completely awake and frolicked around the room. Bianca observed her sleeping little daughter. A tear ran down her cheek, while she watched her little chest go up and down softly.  
"Are you ok?" Veronica asked.  
Bianca nodded but said: "No, I'm not..." She made a short brake and sobbed a little. "I'm afraid to lose him," she said then, "how shall I raise her without him...?"  
Veronica sighed: "I'm sure they will come back... you will not lose him..." The Phoenix nodded.  
Meanwhile Wyatt walked around the room and then stopped in front of Angela. "Hello," he said to her. Then he noticed that she was crying. "Do you've ouch?" he asked childishly.  
Angela looked at the boy confused, then she shook her head: "No I'm ok... I guess." Michael, who was still observing her, sighed.  
"So you sad?" the small boy asked.  
Angel smiled at him, and caressed the boy's cheek. She didn't know him, she didn't know why she was doing that, but he was so cute and nice to her...  
Wyatt felt sorry. He himself didn't like to be sad, and he was sure with other people it was the same. "Got'n idea," he said and then he orbed his teddy to his hands.  
Angel looked shocked at the small boy... He couldn't be older than three and he was doing THAT too???? 'Oh my God,' she thought.  
But Wyatt didn't notice the look in her eyes. He just put, the teddy in her arms and said with his cute voice: "That's my bear... he'll soothe you."

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom hold his hands in front of his face, waiting for the fireball to hit him. But nothing happened. Then hesitating he opened his eyes...  
'What is that?' he thought. He was outside the forcefield... actually a few yards away from the sisters. He saw how Piper got hit... Then how Wyatt appeared there... But how did he get out? He didn't understand it. Thinking about that, he saw how Wyatt began to heal his mother.  
He sighed relieved. But then he felt a hand on his shoulder. Startled he turned around.  
"It's ok, it's me... Leo!"  
"Leo?" Tom asked still confused. "What happened? How..."  
"You don't know?" Leo asked while pulling him up. Tom shook his head, while Leo pushed him behind the trees to the other two men.  
The Elder couldn't help grinning: "You've shimmered out... It seems you're able to cross the forcefield."  
"What?" Tom exclaimed with a low voice."  
Cole nodded: "Yes you did... and that means you can bring us in..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was looking worried to his grown-up mini-self, how could he be so stubborn to stay there? To have stayed when he could have gone? "Let's make this fair, Cris: You and I, and with our powers. Let him alone."  
Cris smirked. "You man, do not set the rules of the game," he answered.  
Christopher frowned, as he stood up slowly, and went towards Chris stepping backwards. Was he nuts? Did Cris really want to face them both with their powers? He glanced at Chris out of the corner of his eye. It seemed he had thought the same thing...  
They both raised their hands at the same time to throw Cris telekinetically through the air, but Cris did the same thing, and it was them that ended up flying and crashing against the forcefield.  
The demon laughed as he approached the two good versions of himself: "You really thought that I was a fool..." He shook his head in disappointment, as the two men on the ground looked at him in horror. "Try it again Chris," he said grinning evilly.  
Chris stared at him, breathing heavily, and thinking of a way to destroy him once and for all, when the terrible yell of Cris made them startle.  
"Try it, DAMMIT!!"  
Christopher looked at Chris, nervously. Then, seeing that he would not do anything, he himself used his telekinesis.  
"NO!!" Chris cried.  
But it was too late. Again the power had been reflected against him, and Christopher felt the result of the strong thud against the forcefield.  
Chris's instinct made him use his own rays against Cris, in revenge, but as soon as he raised his fist to attack, his enemy did the same thing and changed the direction of the rays, which hit strongly on his chest.  
"Chris!!" an anguished Christopher half-ran half-crawled towards him. He had a big wound on his chest and had lost his consciousness, but he breathed.  
Christopher turned to Cris, and clenched his fists. He had to do something.  
Cristóbal smirked and laughed: "Finally... I got my revenge on that bastard... And now it is time to take care of the rest of the family."  
Christopher stood up: "You son of a bitch... you have killed Christopher, and you're gonna pay for it."  
Cris frowned: "You're not gonna trick me out again, little brat."  
Of course it was a trick, but he wouldn't admit it. So Christopher stood up: "Did you really think that I would have sent him in my place?? Fool!! We just exchanged our powers!!! That was not me, you wanna kill me, but you won't... YOU WON'T!" And he jumped on him, aware that his magic was being somehow manipulated by Cris. He fought so fiercely that Cris had no chance to use his powers.  
None of them noticed Tom's presence in the forcefield... nor Leo's, Cole's or Odin's.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Wyatt had finished healing Piper, as the sisters kept Rhashirk busy. They had been hit badly too. That demon... who the hell was he?? The Lord of Darkness... A threat for Belthazor, the Source, too... They did not have time to think, they had to do something...  
But even if Wyatt knew what he didn't have to do, he had no idea of what he should do... He just knew that Rhashirk should not die. That Chris should not kill him...  
"Thanks," Piper muttered, pulling Wyatt out of his thoughts.  
"You're welcome..." the twice blessed said while ducking to avoid being hit by a fireball.  
They rose and Piper tried again to blow Rhashirk up. And again nothing happened.  
The demon smiled. Then he moved his hand and Piper and Wyatt flew through the air and crashed into the forcefield.  
"We need to get you out of here," Wyatt muttered while struggling to stand up again, "you and your sisters."  
Piper complained, but her son didn't listen. He just looked around, seeking for someone.

°°°°°°°°°°

While Cris was distracted, Leo and Cole had ran over to Chris. Odin and Tom stood in the back, to observe the demon and Christopher.  
"What do we do?" Tom asked.  
"We wait," Odin said, "maybe we'll get a chance to do something, till then we make sure that the demon will not surprise Chris, Leo and Cole."  
Tom nodded. Then he suddenly felt a kind of headache, which slowly turned into the voice of Wyatt. "Tom, come over here! I need you to get the sisters out," he heard him in his mind. Confused he looked around.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Oh my God," muttered Cole, kneeling down next to the wounded Chris. Leo immediately started to heal his son.  
An unbelievable long moment later Chris woke up and inhaled deeply. "What happened?" he asked.  
"You were hit by your own powers," Cole remarked with a worried voice, helping him to stand up.  
When Chris saw his baby-brother fighting with that demon, he wanted to run over to him, to help him. But Cole hold him back: "Buddy, he'll kill you if you jump the gun... we need a plan, a good idea, to vanquish him." Leo nodded agreeing.  
Chris sighed. Then he remembered... the potions... he had still the potions in his pocket.

°°°°°°°°°°

Rhashirk was smirking evilly as he calmly approached the weary sisters and Wyatt, who had run to them as soon as he was back on his feet. It was as if the demon didn't have to be afraid of anything. "Well... I have to say that this is impressing... But I'm afraid that I don't have time for more games. Say goodbye..."  
He raised his hands prepared for an imminent attack, while Piper tried once and again to blow him up. But this time, her power did not make any effect at all on him...  
Wyatt covered the other two sisters with his body and called Tom again, with his mind.  
"Wyatt, damn it, do something!" Paige cried, desperate.  
"Mom!!!" he cried, opening his eyes widely. Rhashirk had produced a huge blast of energy which in second would kill Piper. He ran to her, in order to push her out of the way, but at that moment, Tom appeared, grabbed them both, and shimmered out, causing the energy to hit the forcefield and dissolve into nothing.  
"Oh, oh..." Paige and Phoebe looked at each other, pale as a sheet of paper, as they stepped backward. Rhashirk swore, really pissed off, as he attacked both sisters, but Paige had time to orb with Phoebe to another spot inside the forcefield.  
"You cannot do this forever. I'll get to you, and kill you both!" the demon said.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Tom reappeared outside with Wyatt and Piper, who no sooner had rematerialised, were yelling at the young boy.  
"Are you crazy?? I need to go back!!" Piper exclaimed.  
"Take me in there again and get Phoebe and Paige out!!" Wyatt commanded.  
Tom nodded, ignoring Piper's complaints. He'd rather obey Wyatt...

°°°°°°°°°°

At the same time, in the inner forcefield, Chris was playing with the two potions nervously, as he watched the fight between the two men. Leo and Cole stood by his side, and Odin joined them, after seeing what Tom was doing outside.  
"Throw them," Leo said.  
Chris nodded. They would not hurt Christopher at all, the only thing that could happen was that it did not work on Cris either. He threw them to the men... The bottles broke, the liquid spread and touched both of them... But nothing happened. They did not even notice. Chris looked at Leo and Cole, anguished. He had no idea of what to do now...  
At that moment, Cris was punching Christopher on the face. Once... twice... The young Halliwell could hardly breathe, could hardly think... His mind only was able to transmit a message: Use your telekinesis. He knew that this would be reflected to him, but that was the way instinct worked: He used it... and Cris flew against the forcefield, letting Christopher sit down and catch his breath.  
The other four men in the prison saw it in amazement. What had happened??  
"I thought he had the power to reverse our magic, to put it against us..." Chris murmured.  
"The potions did that..." Cole said, seeing how Leo ran to his son in order to heal him. But Christopher rejected him with a gesture and stood up slowly .  
"Whatever, brother..." he said, as Chris approached him too, "I hit him well, too... and he's knocked out, I guess. We need to finish with this son of a bitch," he said as he approached the unconscious body of Cris.

°°°°°°°°°°

Outside, Rhashirk had raised his hands for the third or fourth time, as Paige kept orbing her sister throughout the whole forcefield. Finally, when Wyatt and Tom were back, they focused on saving the girls. The twice blessed used his telekinesis on the demon, which did not work but at least distracted him, so that Tom could shimmer the exhausted sisters out. Even if he did not want to hear their yells, he had to do as Wyatt had said... He took them home.  
"Bastard!" the demon cried, attacking Wyatt fiercely. "You don't see that you can't escape?? Sooner or later, you'll all die!!"  
Wyatt orbed, but the attack reached him, and he fell badly wounded on the ground. He tried desperately to use his energy balls, his blast of energy, and his telekinesis, but nothing worked... Was this how he was supposed to die, then?? He saw the others in the inner forcefield, out of the corner of his eye. He needed their help, or they would find a dead Wyatt when they got out.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole noticed what was going on with Rhashirk and Wyatt, but they needed Tom... He had to come back for them. Otherwise they could do nothing.  
Leo and Odin watched silently and tense what the "twins" did. Chris had joined his mini-self, as they saw how Cris was gaining his consciousness back. "Let's try something..." Chris said. He took Christopher's hand, and made him stretch his arms. "NOW!!!"  
Christopher, somehow, knew what he had to do... He just focused on the victim, who was standing up, slowly and lost. Chris did the same. Soon, the forcefield was filled with a blinding light that made Cole, Leo and Odin cover their eyes.  
But all the energy was focused on Cris. The young man cried in horror and pain... and soon he was reduced to ashes.

°°°°°°°°°°

In the outer forcefield, Wyatt could happily see that the inner forcefield had been destroyed with the impact. This had somehow pushed Rhashirk to the ground when he was about to attack again.  
At that moment Tom shimmered in: "Can I... oh, my God..." He opened his eyes widely, not because of what Chris and Christopher had done, but because of Wyatt's wound. He was breathing heavily. "Leo!!!" he called.  
The two elders ran over to Wyatt to heal him.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole kept looking at his nephews in awe. Was that power produced because of the union of the two selves?? But the two brothers seemed to be so calm...  
"Wow," Christopher said as Chris nodded. Then he pointed at Rhashirk: "Now, him." It was clear that their power had affected him, and they knew now how to vanquish the demon...  
Chris nodded. They had to destroy him. He was powerful, and already a real threat to the family. And besides all that, Chris wasn't sure if he could vanquish Rhashirk without Christopher's help. So slowly they approached the demon. He didn't know where this huge power came from, even if he had a little tiny idea... But he refused to think about this now...

°°°°°°°°°°

When the sisters and Tom had arrived at the attic, no one was there. While Piper had been complaining, Paige had sensed the other at the school. After Tom had left them again, they decided that it would be the best to join the others so Paige orbed them to the library.  
When they materialised, Piper ran to Wyatt to pick him up and hug him tightly. Paige went over to Bianca, who immediately was asking what happened, and where Chris was...  
Phoebe meanwhile, went over to Angela and sat down next to her. "How are you feeling?" she asked. "Are you ok? Did the demon hurt you?"  
Angela shook her head. "No... I guess I'm alright... thanks," she said hesitating.  
Phoebe could feel her fears and her anger against her husband. But she also knew how much she loved him... still. She sighed relieved. Sometimes it was good to know what everybody felt. And in that case, she was sure everything would turn out to be alright... more or less.  
Michael still observed his wife, worried but with eyes full of love. He wanted to talk to her, but he thought that this was surely not the right moment... But which moment would be the right one?

°°°°°°°°°°

As soon as Leo had finished the healing, Wyatt sat up and looked around. He saw his brothers approaching Rhashirk slowly. 'That's not good,' he thought and stood up. He turned to the Elders and said: "Let Tom take you and Cole out of here. I'm sure this will be over soon..."  
They nodded. And Tom took the Elders hands and shimmered over to Cole, to finally leave this place.

_

* * *

(Chapter 10 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén) _


	11. Chapter 11

**A Charmed Story - Part Eight:  
Chris To The Max  
Chapter 11**

Chris and Christopher walked step by step closer to the demon.  
'The same way?' Christopher asked his big brother in his mind.  
Chris stopped for a moment, then he went on, asking back in his mind: 'How can we talk like that, we're not telepaths, right?'  
Christopher nodded: 'Dad said, it's maybe because we're still one person in a way.'  
'Sounds logical,' Chris replied, getting used to it. Then he stopped again - they had been close enough: 'And yes, I guess the same way.'  
Christopher grabbed Chris hand, and both raised the other one, while Rhashirk looked at them with a mixture of anger and fear. But before they could set that white light free and end the existence of that demon, Wyatt orbed next to them and pushed them down to the ground.  
"Wyatt?!?!" Christopher exclaimed confused.  
"What the hell...?" Chris cursed.  
Rhashirk, surprised and confused by all that, knew he shouldn't waste this chance that fate was giving him. He smirked; there would be another chance for him... 'Maybe if the Elders wouldn't help the sisters...,' he thought. Then he shimmered away, and the same second the forcefield disappeared.  
"DAMNED WYATT!" Chris yelled furious, after he saw the demon disappear.  
"Chris..." the twice-blessed tried to explain. But his brothers wouldn't let him. Chris and Christopher just yelled at him without understanding. And Wyatt let them, because they had all rights to be angry, at least as long as they didn't know...  
After a few minutes of yelling the brothers seemed to realise that they still hadn't got an answer. "So can you finally explain us what that should be!?!" Chris yelled. Then they both kept silent looking at the blonde witch-whitelighter expectantly.  
"Is it enough when I tell you that YOU told me to let him escape... because of future consequences?" Wyatt asked.  
Chris and Christopher looked confused. "So that was the second thing?" the Elder-witch asked. Wyatt nodded.  
"Ok," Christopher said, "forget about the future consequences, I want a real explanation."  
Wyatt sighed: "Alright... The world we both came from... The Elders are our friends, a lot of them are like family for us, right?" Christopher nodded, while Chris looked surprised from one to the other. But Wyatt went on: "If you would have vanquished him now, all that would not longer be real, the Elders would fear us and we would fear them..."  
Christopher and Chris sighed. The latter didn't understand this at all, but he trusted his future self to know what he did... Finally he sighed again: "Ok, let's go home."

°°°°°°°°°°

Bluish orbing lights filled the library as the brothers orbed in.  
"And, did you vanquish him?" everyone asked immediately.  
"No..." Chris hesitated, "well... he escaped before... we could hit him..."  
Phoebe, who was wrapped into Cole's strong arms, sighed: "Great, so we still have a demon to kill."  
"I wouldn't worry about him," Wyatt said. "He was seriously wounded, so I guess he will not come back so fast." Christopher and Chris nodded.  
Then both Chrisses were suddenly wrapped into a pair of arms. "Thank you, thank you so much," Michael whispered while hugging them. Then he hugged Wyatt too, while he continued: "Thanks for saving her..."  
Chris smiled at him: "You're welcome."  
Wyatt, while returning the hug, added: "Any time... We're always there for you..." Christopher and Chris agreed.  
Then the latter went over to his wife and his baby, who was sleeping on the sofa. He sighed when he watched his little girl. Thanks God she was fine.  
"Are you ok?" Bianca asked, pulling him into a hug.  
Chris nodded and hugged her back lovingly, then he looked at Angela and Michael, who had sat down again. "What about them?" he asked his wife.  
The Phoenix sighed: "I don't know... But if their love is as half as strong as ours, they will work though this, honey." He couldn't help chuckling and kissed her on her forehead.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey grandpa..."  
Victor startled at the voice behind him, and let the eggs fall on the floor. "Shit..." He turned back, grabbing his chest as if he was suffering from a strong pain: "Chris... damn it, man. I have told you thousands of times that you should not do that. You'll cause me a heart attack!"  
The young witch-Elder lowered his eyes, sadly: "I'mmm... I am so sorry..."  
"It's ok... " Victor smiled, as he bent to take everything and clean the mess. His grandson would not take the eyes from him, while he supported his body on the frame of the door.  
"Have you come to tell me the news? Because I am sorry, but I was the first to..." He raised his eyes, and saw the boy's confused expression: "Oh... You don't know yet..."  
"Don't know what?" he asked tiredly.  
"Cole and Phoebe... Doesn't matter, they'll let you know sooner or later."  
"Oh, yeah, that... I know..." he was staring at his grandpa, with his mind a bit lost.  
Finally, Victor put everything on the table, removed his apron, and looked at him furrowing his eyebrows: "Are you ok? Is there something wrong? Are they... are...?"  
His grandson smiled weakly: "I'm fine, grandpa. This is just... weird."  
Victor frowned even more, and came nearer him to feel his temperature. This made the boy laugh: "I'm perfectly well... I just wanted to come and say hello."  
"Nice. You come all the time and say hello. What's wrong, Chris? Is it Wyatt?" a now very worried Victor asked.  
The young man shook his head, half amused, half sad: "I am... I am Christopher."  
Victor opened his mouth and closed it again, as he picked up the phone: "Ok, sit down. I'm gonna talk to your mother... You need a doctor, you..."  
Christopher smiled at him, and took the receiver to return it to his original place: "It's better that YOU sit down grandpa... I am not Chris. I am Christopher. Little Christopher. From the future."  
Victor opened his mouth and eyes widely, and sat down slowly, even if he didn't want. He felt he was gonna faint.  
Christopher ran to him, and held his arm, worried: "Are you ok??"  
Victor nodded, absently: "Yeah... I think."  
"Sure?? Your... your heart?"  
Victor looked at him. Then he smiled, weakly: "Another Chris?"  
"Christopher," he said, and then smiled, sitting by his side. "Yeah... But I am about to go back, I just wanted to come and say hi... Grandpa. I wanted to see you."  
He took his hand, and stared in his eyes, as the old man looked at him shocked: "Oh my God... I'll never get used to this family..."  
"You'll do, grandpa. And I promise that I'll never ever in my life scare you like that again. I promise." His hand was trembling, and his eyes welled up in tears.  
Victor looked at him, unable to speak. "It's ok, buddy..." he said, smiling reassuringly. "Forget about the heart attack, I was just kiddin'. I know this family very well..."  
Christopher smiled, and cleaned his tears, shivering a little bit: "Yeah... sorry." He was staring at him.  
Victor smiled back: "Ok... I guess we have a lot to talk about so... Would you like to have a drink with me?"  
"What about your breakfast?" Christopher asked, concerned.  
"Oh, that can wait... Don't worry. Do you have time?"  
Christopher tried to laugh: "Oh, yes, I have... Actually I meant what about having breakfast together."  
Victor looked at him serious: "Are you sure you are not Chris?"  
The other one shook his head: "Sure... It's not the fool's day, I think. Well, I am him, somehow... But you know..." Both men laughed.  
"You'll have your breakfast, buddy. And I'll have a clear explanation." The old man stood up to finish cooking, as he muttered 'unbelievable, unbelievable...' constantly. Christopher kept staring at him, as if he had seen a ghost, full of love and sadness at the same time.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve was still wrapped into Nicki's arms, when Chris orbed in. "Sorry," he said, thinking that it maybe had been better to orb to the other side of the bed room door and knock.  
But Nicki smiled at him relieved that he was back. She turned to Steve, gave him a kiss on his cheek and then left the two men alone.  
Chris took a deep breath and went over to his friend. He sat down next to him and patted his shoulder. "Hey... how are you?" he asked. Steve looked at him and grimaced. Chris nodded. For a few minutes they kept silent.  
"You said, that... I mean... you..." the young witch tried to ask, but he didn't know how to say it.  
Chris sighed and lied back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, knowing well what Steve meant. And for a moment he wondered if he should really tell him, if he really wanted to. Because actually he didn't really like it... telling anybody about his own past. But... this was Steve and he needed his help... And who knew, maybe it would help Chris himself, too. He sighed again. And when he finally spoke, he tried to sound somehow emotionless: "Yeah... it was kind of annoying to be tortured by my own brother... One time he nearly killed me... well, no actually a few times."  
Steve stared at the Elder-witch surprised. He knew that Wyatt had been evil, that this was the reason Chris was in the past - they had told them... But that???  
"So," Chris said turning to him again, because he felt the need to change the subject back to his friend, "what did they do to you?"  
"Beating me..." Steve said with a sad and serious voice, "they were beating the hell out of me... But that was nothing compared of..."  
"...the feeling of being completely alone," Chris finished for him.  
Steve stared at him for a moment with watery eyes, then he nodded.  
The Elder-witch sat up again and hugged his friends: "Believe me, you are not alone. You have Nicki, and Tom, who is really worried about you, too... and of course me and my whole crazy family... We're always there for you..."  
"I know, now I know," Steve muttered, but his voice nearly broke. "And I'm thankful that you're here..."  
Chris just hugged him, knowing that there was more he wanted to tell, but the last thing he wanted was to push him. So they just sat there for a while, just existing side by side.  
Then Steve sighed again: "You know, there was a light... in that room... It was so strong, it gave me a terrible headache." Chris just looked at him, not sure how to react. He didn't want to interrupt him.  
"But there was more," the young witch said then, "they showed me pictures... I don't know... the pictures were just in my mind... pictures of my friends, of Nicki... They showed me, how... they... killed her..." Again he broke down crying on Chris's shoulder.  
"Shhhh, it's ok?" the Elder-witch said, "that wasn't real..."  
"I know," Steve sobbed, "but it felt real..."  
He kept crying for a while, before he slowly calmed down again, while Chris was caressing his hair. Then Steve sobbed: "I'm sure Wyatt never meant to hurt you... I mean, he's your brother.  
Chris chuckled sadly: "Believe me... he did... he didn't care about us... and as I said, he nearly killed me."  
"Yeah... that's it... you said 'nearly'."  
Chris sighed. And before he knew it, he said: "Yeah, but that was my fathers intervention... You know... Wyatt had already killed everyone I loved, including Piper... he hadn't mind one more dead family member..."  
"He killed your mom?" Steve asked surprised. "But it's also his mom..."  
Chris just nodded, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable. He didn't mean to tell Steve all this... but he did. 'God, not even Mike knew that much details.'  
Steve sighed, closing his eyes. If Chris could go on with his life, after those things happened to him... If he could live such a happy life, like he has now... Shouldn't he be able to face his own problems - which were really small compared to that - in kind of the same way. Maybe all he needed was someone to talk to... someone who could understand him. And Chris could, he was sure about that...

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt had reached the door to Steve's bedroom a while after Chris went there. He knew his brother felt he needed to talk to his friend as fast as possible... But still... it was time for him and Christopher to go back before they would mess up more things. So he wanted to pick his brother up to give them a proper chance to say goodbye.  
Nevertheless, when he reached the door, he couldn't help eavesdropping. But what he heard hit him in the bottom of his heart and let his blood freeze in his veins. He had done what? He couldn't believe it... He knew he had been evil in Chris's timeline, but that...????  
So he just orbed away... orbed on top of the Golden Gate Bridge where he sank down to the red-colored metal to is feet and broke down crying...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris stayed only a few more minutes with Steve, until he calmed down and seemed to feel better. Now he knew his worst secret. And Chris knew Steve's. And they would share that forever, which would help them both survive with their memories... But he had to leave...  
He called Nicki, who came back immediately. He convinced Steve to have breakfast together with her in the lounge.  
Than Chris left. He knew, Christopher and Wyatt were about to leave... But when he was back in the manor, none of them was there. "Did they leave already??" he asked Piper, freaking out.  
His mother shook her head: "Actually... Wyatt went to pick you up. Didn't you see him??" Chris shook his head.  
"Oh, my God... Don't tell me that something bad happened again," Phoebe said, hugging Cole. Paige and Leo shook their heads.  
"What about Christopher?" Chris asked nervously.  
"He went to say hello to grandpa. He insisted that he wanted to go. He was kinda curious to see him in this time, to see what he was like."  
"Oh..." Chris said. "I see..." he closed his eyes, trying to contact Wyatt at least.  
"They should be here soon..." Paige muttered. "I promised Kyle we'd lunch together a dinner today, when this was done."  
Leo and Piper frowned: "What? When did you talk?"  
Paige blushed. "When I was preparing the potions, between potion and potion..." she confessed, making Phoebe and Cole chuckle.  
"I can't sense him," Chris said, really worried.  
At that moment Christopher came back: "Hey, I am sorry about my delay, I really had a lot to talk and grandpa would not let me go easily. He wanted to make sure that I wasn't... Chris? Is everything ok?"  
All the faces turned to the twins, as Chris shook his head: "Wyatt... I can't sense him."  
Leo sighed and tried to sense him himself. "I can... he's on the... on the bridge."  
"He disconnected me??!!" Chris exclaimed, now very shocked.  
"He disconnected US!" Christopher said, as he looked at them. Without more words, Chris orbed to the bridge, followed by Christopher, who hardly understood the reason of that behavior.  
"Great... simply great," Paige sighed, sitting down on the sofa with a resigned sigh.

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt was weeping full of sorrow, when his two brothers appeared by his side.  
"Wyatt, what the...?" Chris started, but stopped suddenly when he noticed how bad his brother felt. He exchanged a quick look with his mini-self, who kept silent.  
Then Chris sat down by his brother, patting his shoulder: "Wyatt... What happened?"  
"I'm sorry, Chris... I am so sorry. I... I can't... I just can't look at you. You should hate me and I would understand it..."  
Chris frowned, as well as Christopher, who sat now by his other side: "Wyatt... I am sorry, but I don't get it. What are you talking about? Why did you disconnect us?"  
Wyatt swallowed and shook his head: "I tried to kill you. I really wanted to do so... You were nothing for me, were you? My own blood... What kind of monster I was?"  
Chris gasped feeling how everything spun around him. "Wyatt... what are you saying...?" he asked in a whisper, barely understanding. Not knowing to understand.  
Wyatt laughed sarcastically: "I heard you Chris... Shit! You should have told me that! ...what you told Steve!"  
Chris's eyes filled with tears, as he looked aside. Christopher, meanwhile, was listening, silent as a grave, but pressing his big brother's shoulder to comfort him.  
"You were there... Wyatt, you were not supposed to hear that," the Elder-witch muttered.  
"WHY! Why not, Chris?" he asked angrily, as he turned to look at him.  
"Because that did not happen. Not for you. That is only part of my life. You are not him, you are not that Wyatt."  
"What? You don't understand, do you??? I AM that Wyatt! And I will always be. Only the circumstances changed me, but that monster is inside me, Chris." He was desperate, and Chris was so overwhelmed he did not know what to say. "The fact that Gideon did not get to me does not change the fact that there is something in me that can make me change. He did not use a spell, did he? It was the 'trauma' as you always say..."  
"Wyatt..."  
"No, Chris, it is my turn to speak. I tried to kill you. That is not what a trauma does. I could have hit you, yelled at you, even made you leave your home. But I killed my whole family, Chris. And I tried to kill you, too. And if you escaped it was not because I felt mercy towards you. How do you call that, Chris?? For me it's a monster, a psychopath! That is still here!" He touched his heart. "You only changed the circumstances... That wasn't a trauma."  
Chris lowered his wet eyes, and kept silent, his lips shivering. That was exactly why Wyatt shouldn't know.  
"I call that a mistake," Christopher answered shyly and very lowly. His two brothers turned their faces to him. "That timeline never existed, that Wyatt was never there... It was just a mistake." He was also crying now, shocked by what he heard, but sure that what he was now going to say was the truth. "You were never that Wyatt and you will never be."  
Wyatt tried to interrupt him, but Christopher gestured to make him keep silent: "Now it's MY turn. Wyatt... You are the best of the brothers in the world; you are always there for me. You do more for me than anyone would be ready to for anyone else. I have been listening to you all the time, trying to figure out how all that could be possible, and for as much I look at you, I cannot see a monster in your eyes, Wyatt. I just can't. There's nothing like that in you. On the contrary, you're the kindest person; even if I'm a pain in the ass most of the time... you are there for me. I... I believe that you're wrong in your reasoning right now. As I see it, there's a Mr. Hyde in every Dr. Jekyll. I have one, you have one, and you, Chris, too. Or we all had. That is our evil part... But we killed it. The evil Wyatt was killed by your good self, and you did that thanks to your own actions, and your love for us all, brother. You have no monster inside, anymore." He paused, and turned to look at the sky: "And I feel like shit right now because I said so many ridiculous things in one minute, and you seem to be thinking, what the hell does he have to do in this? I am sorry... This was not my business."  
He started to orb, ashamed, but Wyatt grabbed his arm, and then hugged him strongly: "Don't say that ever again in your life, Christopher. This is your job... And I need you as much as you needed me when you fell off the bike, man. Thanks..."  
Chris smiled, with tears in his eyes. "You talked like the big guys, mini-me." Christopher chuckled. "And he's right, Wyatt..." the Elder-witch said seriously, "that other Wyatt disappeared. You will never be like him. Forget what you heard today... I came to change that because I love you, and the best of the blessings is to see now that you two love each other so much."  
Christopher was hugging Wyatt strongly. "You've heard that? Promise you'll never ever disconnect me again." he sobbed.  
Wyatt stroke his hair: "I promise... I promise."  
Chris stared at them full of happiness. Finally he cleared his voice: "Can I... can I join you?"  
Wyatt and Christopher chuckled. "O course, Christopher," Christopher answered.  
Chris looked at his smiling mini-self, startled. Then he grinned. "Thanks... Chris," he muttered, as the three brothers hugged each other.  
This went on for a couple of minutes, until Wyatt growled: "Oh, crap... Forgot to disconnect dad."  
'You three, what are you doing on the bridge? Are you planning to escape, not to have to go back home?' A pause. 'Move your butts immediately back to the manor!' A pause. 'I'm sorry, Piper wanted me to say that.'  
The three brothers looked one another in the eyes, and burst into laughter.

°°°°°°°°°°

Short after Chris was gone, it knocked on the door. Nicki went to open it. Surprised she looked into the eyes of Tom. "Hey," she said tiredly.  
Veronica, who stood next to her boyfriend, stepped forward to hug her. "Do you both have some time? We've a lot of things to tell..." she asked.  
"Well... I'm not sure..." Nicki hesitated.  
"We have Pizza!" Tom added showing her the boxes.  
At that moment Steve appeared in the hallway and stepped next to Nicki. His eyes were still red, and still he looked really terrible, but... Tom noticed a kind of light in his friend's eyes, a light which he had thought was gone forever. And Steve smiled, he smiled at them.  
"Pizza for breakfast? With a lot of chilli?" he asked and smiled even a little more.  
Tom nodded a little confused. But Steve just smiled and said: "Sounds great!"

°°°°°°°°°°

When the three brothers orbed home, everything was already prepared. The trinquera was painted at the wall, and the whole family was there to say goodbye. Odin and Silas had come, too. Even if they should be up there now, and calm down the other Elders, who of course noticed the huge power Chris and Christopher had set free. But they wanted to say goodbye too.  
Chris went over to Bianca, who was carrying Hope and picked the little girl up to his arms, smiling. The baby looked at him with her shining green eyes making Chris's eyes turn watery. He felt an overwhelming joy of having such a wonderful gift like her.  
Christopher looked at Wyatt rolling his eyes. The twice blessed chuckled. He could understand both of his brothers...  
Then he looked around and noticed that someone was missing: "Where are Mickey and Angy?"  
Phoebe sighed then she nodded into the direction of the door: "Downstairs. Michael said I shall tell you two a goodbye and how thankful he is. But he wanted to stay with his wife now..."  
Wyatt nodded and took a deep breath. Still he felt the need to talk to Angela. "Excuse me a moment," he said and orbed.  
Piper meanwhile went over to Christopher and put his baby-version into his arms.  
"What...?" he asked confused.  
Piper chuckled: "Thought you would like to share a moment with yourself."  
Her son grimaced at her, but when he looked at the baby he smiled. "I'm a cute boy, right?" he asked and everybody nodded agreeing.  
"God that's so weird," Christopher said then shaking his head. Even if he now knew how much trouble his time-travel nearly cursed... it was worth it... and finally everything was alright... He just wished he could have spend more time with his grandfather. He missed him so much.  
Chris looked up, when he heard his brothers thoughts. He hadn't meant to read his mind, it was just accidentally. And it seemed Christopher didn't notice. Whatever, Chris was kind of shocked about these news. And he suddenly remembered how concerned Wyatt had been when he had met Victor...Chris couldn't believe that his grandfather wouldn't be there anymore in the future. Victor had always been there for him, in his time... And he wanted him to be there for Hope, too... and of course for his brothers... He sighed. He had to solve that somehow... He couldn't let that happen. But how should he prevent that?

°°°°°°°°°°

Wyatt materialised in front of Angela, startling her. "Wow... Wow... please... don't be afraid of me," he said to her with a soft voice.  
"Who are you?" she asked, flinching on the sofa as much as possible.  
"Me?" he asked smiling. "I'm Wyatt, Chris's... well... Chris's little brother... the cute little boy you surly already met... Piper's son."  
Angela frowned. How could that be? Yes, she knew that boy... that boy who let this bear appear in his hands and gave it to her... but... how could he be Chris's brother? Chris had said he's Piper's brother... and the boy was Piper's son... Chris was too old to be Piper's son... And anyway, how could this man be that boy?  
Wyatt seemed to guess what she thought. Still smiling he added: "You know, Chris came from the future in first place, and he changed his future completely... Therefore he had to stay in the past and is now my big brother instead of my little one... But, I also have a little brother, Christopher... he's like him, but not really... Oh, and I'm from the future too, from the new future. That's why I'm nearly 26 instead of nearly 3 as the version that belongs to this time... Does that makes any sense to you?"  
Angela had listened to every word the man had said... But no, that was all a little too much for her. So she shook her head, even if she had to admit, that this man had the same deep blue eyes, like the small boy.  
Wyatt sighed: "Ok, look, I need to go back to my time now, but... I can't do that as long as I'm not sure that everything is alright." He made a break looking her straight into her eyes. "You know... even if this is hard to understand, it's very important for me, that you and Michael stay together... I can't tell you why, because of future consequences, but... I know how much Mickey loves you, you're everything to him. If you had seen him the last days..." Again he made a short break, thinking how he could go on, without spoiling the future again. "Well... what I wanted to say is... He never meant to hurt you... He couldn't tell you the truth, he wasn't allowed, that was part of the deal... he only wanted to protect you... And... I know you love him, too... right?"  
For a moment, Angela didn't move, then she nodded.  
Wyatt sighed again: "So you give him a second chance?"  
She looked at him, he really seemed to care... and, what was more important, he seemed to tell the truth. So again, she nodded.  
"Thanks," Wyatt said and kissed her cheek. Then he said goodbye and orbed away after saying: "Send your husband some greetings..."  
None of them had noticed Michael who was standing in the doorway. He had just returned from the kitchen, with a glass of water for his wife, when he had seen Wyatt appearing. He had heard everything Wyatt had said and it had made him cry again. Slowly he went over to Angela and sat down next to her, putting the glass on the table.  
When she had noticed him, she just looked at him. She just looked into his eyes... his read, and swollen and still watery eyes. Then she hugged him.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Wyatt returned to the attic, he could feel a kind of sadness in the air. "Oh come on," he said, "you know we HAVE to leave and that we go to a GREAT future..."  
Leo nodded: "Yeah, but still it's sad to let you go..."  
Christopher sighed. Then he took a deep breath and started saying goodbye. He hugged everyone tightly, especially his mom.  
"I'll miss you," she said or better sobbed.  
Christopher looked at her smiling: "Remember that when you change my diapers."  
When he came to Chris he hesitated a moment, but the Elder-witch hugged him tightly. "Goodbye mini-me," he said, "I'm very proud of you, my little brother."  
Christopher sighed: "See you in 23 years, maxi-me."  
Meanwhile also Wyatt was busy with saying goodbye. When he came to Cole his uncle smiled.  
"Well, little worrior," he said, "I think I should change your nickname to huuuuuuge worrior."  
Wyatt chuckled: "No please, I prefer the 'little'..." Then he hugged him tightly.  
"I'm very proud of you," Cole whispered to his ear, and that meant so much to the twice blessed.  
When the row came to Bianca she hugged Wyatt so tightly that he thought he would run out of air. "I owe you so much," she whispered.  
"Yeah, but if you would let me breath, I would completely satisfied with that," he said chuckling.  
Then Wyatt turned to Chris.  
"Goodbye little brother," the Elder-witch said and hugged him before Wyatt had a chance to do anything. "I'll miss you... I will miss you so much," he added then.  
The twice blesses sighed: "I will miss you too."  
They separated, but still they looked at each other. Then Wyatt winked at him and told him, telepathically: 'I'm sure we'll meet again.'  
At the same moment, Christopher threw the potion at the trinquera, making the wall glow in white-purple-blue shining light. The future-boys waved to their family one last time, then they stepped through the portal back to where they belonged.

°°°°°°°°°°

_Sometimes in the future:_  
When Matthew opened his eyes, he looked directly into those of his mother. "How do you feel, baby?" she asked.  
He sat up: "I don't know... a little dizzy..."  
Chris patted his shoulder, but then he changed his mind and hugged him tightly. "Don't worry," he whispered to his ear, "everything will be alright... it's just the 'two-sets-of-memories-headache', but that will fade away soon."  
"So did it work?" Matthew asked kind of shyly.  
Chris smiled at him, same as Bianca and Hope. "What did you do yesterday afternoon?" his father asked instead of answering.  
Matthew frowned: "I was at the school... you picked me up there... but... wait... I ... I think I was also at the park with Andy."  
Chris chuckled: "See... it worked... your best friend and his twin-sister are back, because YOU helped us rescuing their father."  
Matthew smiled proudly. And when he thought about his past, he couldn't understand how he had spend all his time without his best friend...  
"What about your powers?" Bianca asked concerned.  
"Mom... I'm alright, I swear... I know how to handle it," he said, trying to sound like an adult, or better trying to sound like Chris.  
"Ok, son," the Elder-witch grinned, "I think you should lay down and relax a little, just close your eyes a while... that's the easiest way to deal with the changings."  
Matthew wanted to answer something when Jim went in. "Hey," he said, "Andy called... He's waiting for you Matthew!"  
Now the boy smiled widely, turning to his dad: "See... I have no time!" Then he shimmered away.

_Still in the future:_  
A few hours later Chris sat on the old sofa in the attic waiting for his brothers to return. He grinned to himself, imagine the faces of them when they would hear what they changed this time... actually something good, of course.  
A few minutes later Hope orbed in. "Damned," she cursed holding her slightly bleeding shoulder...  
"What happened?" Chris asked concerned.  
His daughter sighed and sat down next to him: "Nothing... just a demon... I ran into him, when I left B.'s and Julian's cave."  
Chris nodded: "Are you ok?"  
Hope smiled at him and her green eyes were shining: "You know me, right?"  
"Yeah I do," he answered grinning and moved closer so that he could heal her.  
But at that moment the wall in front of them began to glow, and seconds later Wyatt and Christopher stepped out of the portal.  
"Welcome back," Chris said grinning.  
Christopher went over to him and hugged his big brother tightly. But Wyatt just stood there in front of them with his arms crossed in front of his chest.  
When his brothers separated he said, with a really angry voice: "How could you? How could you Chris? Matthew is only 13!!!!!"  
Chris sighed: "I know... but it was the only way."  
Wyatt wanted to add something when someone else entered the attic. The 19-years woman, ran over to him and hugged him tightly. "God... It's good that you're still here Julia," he said and kissed his girl passionately.  
Meanwhile Christopher hugged his nice. "I've seen you when you had been sooooooo small," he said.  
"Yeah, yeah, outch" Hope said, pushing him away, "but be careful, my shoulder was hit by a fireball..."  
The witch-Elder looked at her confused, then at his big brother: "Why didn't you heal her?"  
Chris wanted to say that he would have, if they didn't have arrived that moment. But some bluish orbing lights interrupted them.  
When they saw WHO materialised in the middle of the attic, both - Wyatt and Christopher - where kind of frozen in shock.  
The grey-haird whitelighter went over to Hope and started to heal her shoulder. "What happened?" he asked.  
Wyatt, who still had his arms around his girl, was the first one who found his voice again. "GRANDPA?" he exclaimed surprised and completely lost.  
Chris chuckled and then turned to the confused whitelighter smiling: "They came just back through the portal... They need a little time to get used to the changings..."  
"And I am a changing?" Victor asked wondering - not understanding. Chris nodded.  
"So I think I should fix your wound downstairs," he said then to Hope and orbed with her away.  
"Could you please tell me what's going on here?" Wyatt asked, while Christopher still couldn't believe his eyes.  
"Well," Chris said, "I was surprised like you when I found out... but then I remembered... short before you both left to the future I read your mind Christopher."  
"What?" his little brother exclaimed.  
"Accidentally," Chris added and then went on. "From that I knew that he wouldn't be here in this time... And I didn't want that, I wanted grandpa to be there for both of you, like he was for me... So I did some research and when I found out that I would turn to an immortal full-time-Elder when I die... Well I thought it would be kind of boring when I'm still there in 100 years..."  
"Get to the point Chris," Wyatt said kind of frustrated.  
"Ok, ok," again he smiled, "I found out where the list for future whitelighters is hidden, and then... I broke in there... with some help... and added his name to the list... And now he's my children's whitelighter."  
Christopher smiled: "But... even if I'm really happy to have him back... that's against the rules... I mean, that he stays with the family."  
"Who cares, I'm an Elder..." Chris said grinning.  
Julia was smiling about the confusion of her love... he looked so cute when he looked like that. Softly she kissed his cheek, then she whispered: "And what do you think, who helped him doing that...?"  
Wyatt looked at her. How could she know about that, this must have happened before they had fallen in love... But then he remembered that he had told her the story... because he and Christopher had been with Chris...  
_"I'm afraid," five years old Christopher admitted, looking around the grand hallway of one of those buildings of the Elders.  
Wyatt turned to his younger brother and grinned: "Don't worry, nothing will happen to us...Because Chris will protect us, right?" The last words the eight year old boy directed at his old brother.  
Chris chuckled: "Absolutely." Then he put his finger on his lips and whispered: "Follow me..."_  
...they had been the ones helping him. Now Wyatt could remember how they had broken in there. He shook his head smiling. Then he kissed Julia again.

_

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(Chapter 11 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén) _

* * *

**Well... That's all for this part. But don't worry. Next week on Friday we'll start with the 9th story of our series. So stay tuned.**  



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